So Thursday night on TV, ABC aired the episode of Grey's Anatomy where gay couple Drs. Callie Torres and Arizona Robbins get "married".

Of course, it's not legal, and that was kind of the point that Grey's Anatomy Sondra Rhimes was making, I believe.

But Rhimes couldn't just stop there:  Nope, we had to hear about how Robbins and Torres couldn't get a priest to marry them, and they had to search high and low for a minister who would perform the ceremony.

* boo hoo *

Gee, wonder why?  Could it be that you're expecting a religious official to disregard the religion that ordained him or her?  Or expect the religion you're a willing member of to just conform to your viewpoint so you could feel better about yourself?

Marriage is a religious institution.  The gay marriage proponents have made an interesting point, however:  If we are to recognize marriage as the religious institution that it is, then a secular society can no longer sanction them.

But what we will put in place of the religious institution of marriage?  Some sort of secularly-recognized status?

Ooh, I get it!  Civil unions!

Give the gay community federally-recognized civil unions with the same rights and privileges as marriage, and let's drop this silly issue.

And what gay-marriage promotion would be incomplete without the obligatory Christian-bashing?

You see, the character of Callie Torres is Catholic.  And her mother had, well, issues:

• She didn't want to hold her granddaughter, a child born out of wedlock, going so far as to call her a bastard.  Which is what you call a child born to unmarried parents.
• She astutely pointed out that the wedding wasn't legal.  She went on to state how the whole thing had an element of fakery to it.
• To top it off, she was concerned her daughter wouldn't get into Heaven.

Well, yeah.  That's her religion.  Her religion informs her that the marriage is wrong.  The whole thing clearly made her uncomfortable.  And I get that weddings mean the bride (or brides, in this case) pretty much gets to be treated like a princess for the day while everyone else endures some discomfort.  But did Callie have a reasonable expectation that her mother, a deeply religious woman, would turn her back on her faith, as Callie did, to sate her daughter's narcissism?  That's a pretty tall order.