Is the Obama administration just Biden time on “same sex marriage”?

From “The Caucus” blog on the New York Times site:

Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. said on Sunday that he was “comfortable” with same-sex marriages, a position that appeared to go beyond the “evolving” views that President Obama has said he holds on the issue.

“I am absolutely comfortable with the fact that men marrying men, women marrying women and heterosexual men and women marrying one another are entitled to the same exact rights, all the civil rights, all the civil liberties,” Mr. Biden said in an appearance on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”

The piece notes that President Obama has described his own views on “same sex marriage” as “evolving” (he has, of course, made his pro-“gay” views very clear). Biden, apparently, has evolved fully. Or has he?

Mr. Biden remarks about gay marriage were wide-ranging. He spoke of the growing social acceptance of same-sex unions in the United States, even touching on the influence of the television show “Will and Grace,” the NBC sitcom that focused on gay characters.

“I just think that the good news is that as more and more Americans come to understand what this is all about is a simple proposition. Who do you love? Who do you love?” Mr. Biden said. “And will you be loyal to the person you love? And that’s what people are finding out is what, what all marriages, at their root, are about. Whether they’re marriages of lesbians or gay men or heterosexuals.”

Are you as surprised as I am (sarcasm alert!) that Biden (a Catholic) is so narrow minded here? What about a transgendered 15-year-old who wishes to marry his/her thrice-divorced stepmother?  Or the five middle-aged folks in southern Utah who want to tie the knot? Or even the aging California folk singer who wishes to marry his favorite pit bull (or dolphin)? Who can deny their “love”? Or their loyalty? After all, if enlightened and evolved people “are finding out” that marriage is only about “love” (however defined) and “loyalty” (however expressed and realized), why stop with two people, or have parameters based on age or biological and familial relationships? 

The point, in all seriousness, is that if “love” and “loyalty” are merely terms constructed from flimsy emotional fabric, the “evolution” of one’s views about marriage will be continual, subjective, and never settled. This is especially the case now that marriage and procreation have been severed from one another. The other point is that “same sex marriage” has a good chance of being the next issue used by the federal government to assault the proper autonomy of the Catholic Church and other religious institutions. It will be the focal point, I think, of the next big battle over religious liberty, especially if Pres. Obama is re-elected this November.