In debates I have participated in over same-sex marriage, its proponents have often asserted that the practice would have negligible societal effect. They maintain that after the standardization of gay marriage everything will continue as it has. Such an assertion, it seems to me, requires an unbelievable degree of willful self-delusion or dishonesty.

The Weekly Standard has a sobering article that gives us a thorough preview of the upcoming train-wreck:

Banned in Boston
The coming conflict between same-sex marriage and religious liberty.
by Maggie Gallagher

“The impact will be severe and pervasive,” Picarello says flatly. “This is going to affect every aspect of church-state relations.” Recent years, he predicts, will be looked back on as a time of relative peace between church and state, one where people had the luxury of litigating cases about things like the Ten Commandments in courthouses. In times of relative peace, says Picarello, people don’t even notice that “the church is surrounded on all sides by the state; that church and state butt up against each other. The boundaries are usually peaceful, so it’s easy sometimes to forget they are there. But because marriage affects just about every area of the law, gay marriage is going to create a point of conflict at every point around the perimeter.”

The legalization of same-sex marriage is already forcing Catholic Charities of Boston to discontinue adoption services because the government requires that they permit same-sex couples to adopt children in direct conflict with the religious edicts of the Vatican. Rather than compromise their beliefs, they will discontinue the service.

The LDS Church, which provides adoption services through LDS Social Services, could conceivably find itself in a similar situation in the future.

Read the whole thing.