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Incestuous relationships are against the interest of the state since they tend to lead to inbred offspring. Marriage should be done in public, because the ability of people to hold you to your vows helps the stability of marriage, and that is in the state's interest.
Anyway, so far I've only been talking about marriage as a civil institution, but Martin Guerre brings up some interesting points about marriage as a Christian institution, as well as an interesting web site. I agree with a lot of what he says, and a lot of what the site says, but I am still of the opinion that homosexual activity, according to scripture, is sinful. Perhaps not especially sinful, but still sinful. I hope he'll forgive my lack of sources, since it's been several years since I researched the issue.
The site he mentions, whosoever.org, makes a number of counter-arguments to the arguments of someone who is against homosexual activity, and most of them are spot on. The only two I have even minor quibbles about is their discussion of the term malakoi arsenokotai. They strongly imply that there's no way this term means homosexuality -- and that is, of course, false. It could mean homosexuality, or masturbation, or something else. We don't know. And in general, on the NT quotes, they are very quick to explain away more explicit quotes, in a way that may or may not be accurate. They're right if all they're saying is that Paul might just be talking about temple prostitution, they're going a bit far if they're saying that this is in fact the case, and I find their insinuations that Paul is only talking about certain sorts of homosexual activity odd, to say the least. What could this mean, that oral sex b/w men is okay but anal sex is bad? I have my doubts.
The difficulty with looking at the scriptural perspective on homosexuality is that it didn't exist back then -- not in the way we think of it today. It seems that, in general, people's sexual preferences are more like on a continuum; very few people are only attracted to one gender or another, though most do tend strongly to be attracted to one gender or another. Our society tend to stick people into boxes based on where they happen to be on this continuum, so we get the socially constructed categories of gay, bi, and straight. In the ancient world, they did not have these categories. So, for example, in the Greek world, plenty of men had what we would now call homosexual relationships with their students without anyone thinking to put them in a box labeled gay.
But none of that means that, at the end of day, scripture isn't clear enough on homosexuality activity. Why is that? Well, scripture teaches that sexual activity ought only take place within marriage. It's also very clear that marriage is instituted by God as a relationship between a man and a woman (cf. Genesis, a position which is reaffirmed in the gospels.) So, scripture teaches that homosexual activity is sinful.
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"Die Deutschen meinen, daß die Kraft sich in Härte und Grausamkeit offenbaren müsse, sie unterwerfen sich dann gerne und mit Bewunderung:[...]. Daß es Kraft giebt in der Milde und Stille, das glauben sie nicht leicht."
"The Germans believe that power must reveal itself in hardness and cruelty and then submit themselves gladly and with admiration[...]. They do not believe readily that there is power in meekness and calm."
-- Friedrich Nietzsche
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