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Results from Michigan State University's 2014 State of the State survey, based on 1,008 respondants. In 2004, 59 percent of Michigan voters approved a ban on gay marriage. In the 2014, only 39 percent still support such a ban, according to the MSU survey.

KALAMAZOO, MI

-- After the Kalamazoo Gazette published a profile about a

, Lonnie Stenger called to say the story reflected the media's "liberal agenda" and accused us of refusing to report both sides of the gay-marriage issue.

I called Stenger back with pen and pad in hand, and asked: What does he see as the other side of story?

"I think if we redefine marriage, it will lead to a breakdown in society. I really do," said Stenger, a 53-year-old public works employee who attends Calvary Bible Church in Kalamazoo. Stenger and his wife live in Oshtemo Township, only a few miles from Chris Harris and Dan Wimsatt, the gay couple profiled by the Gazette.

RELATED STORY: Kalamazoo gay couple: 'We feel God put us together.'

Stenger said he'd actually be fine with civil unions. "It's really marriage" that he opposes for gays, he said. "If we allow that, we're weakening the fabric that's held our country together."

He pointed to the example of the fall of the Roman Empire. "When traditional values erode, that's when everything goes," he said.

Stenger added that he has nothing against Harris and Wimsatt, and he acknowledged their adopted children may be better with Harris and Wimsatt than the boys' birth family.

"I have no problem with these gentlemen," Stenger said. "It sounds like the kids are getting the support they need."

But it would be much better, Stenger said, if there were enough straight couples to take in children who need new homes. "The alternative would be better, for the kids to be with hetereosexuals," he said.

Stenger said the media and Hollywood "have an agenda" that has promoted the gay lifestyle, and has eroded support for a traditional family setup of husband, wife and children.

"I don't think the other side gets covered as it should," Stenger said about traditional family values.

Stenger stressed this is "not about hating gays." In face, he said, he sees divorce "as every bit as harmful" to American family life as gay marriage, and says gays shouldn't face discrimination in the workplace.

He also acknowledged that there needs to be flexibility in secular society, which is why he wouldn't overturn divorce laws.

"We don't live in a theocracy," he said. "But to go that much farther and allow gay marriage, that's a slippery slope. ... I just think you need to draw a line."

And that line should be gay marriage, he said, voicing his unhappiness with the recent ruling by a federal judge to overturn Michigan's ban on gay marriage. That decision is being appealed and many anticipate the U.S. Supreme Court will be ruling on gay marriage next year.

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If the Supreme Court allows gay marriage, Stenger said, it would a sad day for America.

"I just don't think it's good for the country or the kids," he said.

Stenger's views are representative of people in his demographic: Older white men who are evangelical Christians and politically conservative.

Responses on annual Pew Research poll of Americans on support/opposition to gay marriage.

But they also represent a shrinking minority of Americans.

"White evangelical Protestants are the main exception" to the growing support of gay marriage, the

reported last month. The Pew survey found only 19 percent of older evangelicals back gay marriage, compared to 54 percent of all Americans.

(In fact, while Catholic leaders have been among the most outspoken opponents of the recent court decision --

called it "unfortunate and regrettable" -- the Pew poll indicates 59 percent of U.S. Catholics support same-sex marriage.)

In Michigan, 59 percent of voters approved a ban on gay marriage in 2004. This spring, a

found 54 percent of respondents now back gay marriage, while 39 percent disapprove.

The poll numbers hint at the underlying reasons that gay marriage has gained acceptance: 87 percent of Americans know a relative or acquaintance who is gay, and it's a minority of Americans -- 45 percent -- still see homosexuality as a sin.

Moreover, gay marriage has been a reality now in parts of the U.S. for more than a decade, and the feared "breakdown in society" is unclear, at best.

suggest the emotional and fiscal benefits of growing up in a two-parent household are the same regardless of the parents' gender, a central point in the Michigan gay-marriage case.

Gay marriage seems to be following a familiar arc in American history, where a societal norm once considered beyond question eventually gets turned on its head. Examples that come to mind include the supposed inferiority of women and minorities, the ability of parents to treat their children as they wished without interference, and very strict limits on divorce.

To be sure, changes in societal norms aren't always positive. The growing number of children born to single mothers, for instance, has led to more childhood poverty and instability.

But the vast majority of Americans, I suspect, would resist turning back the clock to the traditional family values of 200 years ago, when African-Americans were property and white women and children had few rights.

Even in our lifetime, marriage has undergone significant redefinition, with the advent of no-fault divorce and the legalization of interracial marriage.

In fact, gay marriage now has much more support among Americans than interracial marriage had when the Supreme Court ruled in Loving v. Virginia in 1967. A year after that decision, 72 percent of Americans still opposed mixed-race marriages -- and many, including the original trial judge in the Loving case, cited Biblical teachings on "race mixing" as a rationale.

Not surprisingly,Stenger sees a big difference between interracial and same-sex marriage. He also isn't worried, he says, about being on the wrong side of history.

"I have to answer to God," he said when I asked him about that. "I don't have to answer to you or to anybody else."

Julie Mack covers K-12 education and writes a column for Kalamazoo Gazette. Email her at jmack1@mlive.com, call her at 269-350-0277 or follow her on Twitter

at kzjuliemack.