...SEVEN SENATE DEMOCRATS HAVE YET TO COME OUT IN SUPPORT OF MARRIAGE EQUALITY

I got this in my email today from a political activist.  So I have decided to let you all know about "Marriage Equality" by Paul Dion.  In case you are wondering whether or not I am going to pull out my moral stance on the subject - I am, but just a little bit.  But I do have one.  A very stubborn one as well as a nuanced one.  Much too complicated for 500 words.  So this is going to be reality based sarcasm.

There are several fundamental non-equalities in a same-sex marriage.  Just for starters, I issue a few.
1. Everyone knows that there is no marriage without a daily quibble or outright spat about the toilet seat being left up.
2. Everyone knows that there is no marriage without a clearly defined owner of who gets the last word.
3. Everyone knows that there is no marriage without the remote possibility of engendering offspring. (I offer Sarah and Abraham as examples.)
4. Everyone knows that there is no marriage in "gender."  SEX is where it's at, not "gender" for crying out loud!
5. So, when all these things add up to "no marriage" then the "gender" of marriage = neuter. (You can look it up in any grammar book where there is no sex, just gender.)  Gender = no marriage.
5a. The question that I have is: "With all this talk about "gender" why do we even bother talking about same SEX marriage?
6. Everyone knows that for a true marriage to exist, the ensuing divorce has to be a vicious battle of wills between a man and a woman fighting over money, property and custody of children.  What's going to happen to that?  Will the lawyers go hungry?
7. Everyone knows that it takes testosterone and estrogen go have a real newsworthy, headline grabbing divorce.  That's why "gender" unions won't work.  The tabloids will go broke because they won't have any more real marriages to denigrate.

I must say, to be fair, that I am solidly convinced that the government can grant marriage licenses to whomever it pleases, provided, of course, that the recipients are human.  That does not mean that I think that what the government does is moral.  Not at all.  In fact I know that it is immoral.  It goes from one bribe source to another to the detriment of the common good.  That is immoral because it contributes to the preparation of the nation for its downfall. I do know, according to the moral principles of the relationship between law and virtue, that the lawmaker should never make a law that countervails virtue.  Laws that are counter basic morality are not enforceable laws and are therefore not real laws at all.  The law must always make it easier to practice virtue.  I don't think that anybody should put the Constitution of the United States of America before the fundamental natural law that governs right human conduct which is in commonality with the Law of God.

We hear a lot about same-sex marriage being an attack on the institution of marriage.  The wise-crack answer is usually, "It's not attacking my marriage."  You're right, except for one thing.  It is an attack on your children's perception of human morality and over time it will erode the moral fiber of this democratic republic...all the way to its downfall.  Remember Greece?  Remember Rome? Remember Constantinople?  

Therefore, every time the lawmaker caves in to a special interest, the greater good suffers at the hands of individual greed and the republic gets weaker and weaker every time.

Remember, you read it here.  That way you won't be tempted to cry at my funeral.

ONCE A CATHOLIC, ALWAYS A CATHOLIC

Listen to this.  You gotta luv it.  A man accosted me yesterday at the lobby of the mini-symposium and started his conversation with, "I'm sick and tired of these people who say, 'I used to be Catholic, but now...'  I always tell them, 'you're like the auto mechanic, med school drop-out who brags 'I was a doctor, once, but I got pissed off at the registrar and left'.  You never have been a Catholic and never will be until you come back and live the life for at least ten years.  Then you'll be Catholic not by culture but by conviction."
This is the strongest language I have heard over the three days of operation.  I wonder if there is more of the same in store.  Actually, the three stories I have heard so far are more of the "Once Catholic, always a Catholic" variety, and they come in varying degrees of conviction.  One man said, "You need me.  Put me to work."  This was Monday, so I did, and he keeps coming back.  So, I guess he's back.  If he asks me where to go to confession, I think I'll just say, "You already did."  I'll have to wait and see how it turns out.
Anyway, I have to take a short break.  I'll be back.
Talking about strong language makes me remember the testimony of a young lady during the second meeting of the gay and lesbian instruction led by the diocesan minister in charge of such things.  I was late getting to the party, but I had plenty of other things to do.  I walked in and sat in the back.  The microphone was making the rounds and parents and younger people were taking turns throwing their two-cents into the ring of opinions.  I was listening with about 1/2 of my brain when the microphone got to the young lady in question.  I couldn't help but hear since she was in the chair ahead of mine.  The most stunning part of  her self-disclosure was when she said, "The day when I decided to stop fighting my sexuality and to throw myself into the loving arms of God was the day that I felt I was being kissed for the first time, all day long."  After a while the meeting started to break up and I got the chance to see her face to face.  I hope she didn't pick up on the flood of emotion that washed over me when I realized that she is one of the people in the parish that I get along with very well.  She grew several notches in my estimation tonight.
The two nights of teachings on this subject exposed over 100 people to the culture of this ministry.  Many in attendance are leaders of the parish.  Some are of the right-wing conviction.  Those leaders now have a different view of the world.  We have been changed by the experience and we have been handed new responsibilities by God Himself.  We have discovered what it's going to take for us to go through life life proclaiming "Once a Catholic, ALWAYS A CATHOLIC."

I WOULD HAVE TAKEN A PICTURE, BUT IT WOULD NOT HAVE MATTERED

WHERE'S THE GAY GUY? 

I was going to take a picture for this "Thought" but then I realized that it would look something like the one you have here on the left.  So I decided that it wasn't worth it.  The only recognizable person would have been the priest leading the meeting.  All the rest were just ordinary people.  Well, almost "ordinary".  Most of them are still ordinary, but then again that is perhaps not perfectly true any more either.  You see this would have been a picture of about 30 people sitting in front of a Catholic priest teaching them about the position that the Catholic Church wants us to have with regards our homosexual brethren.  The point of the picture would have been the same as it with the one that you presently have before you...from behind we are all the same.  In the eyes of God we are all lovable. Each one of us cost Jesus His life, down to the last drop of His blood.  The challenge that we have then is to love one another as He loved us.  And, surprise, that includes homosexuals.  

I could not attend the entire session because I have other responsibilities concerning the mini-symposium about which I have been writing lately.  I did sit there a bit and I did make myself present at the end.  This was easy because all the other sessions had closed down and this one was still going.  It had been going for about 2 hours and the people were still there, listening, making comments, and behold, so intently engaged, and so polite and gentle to one another and to the priest/leader of the exchanges.  As the session wound down I went to the front of the group and since there were many there who did not really know me, I introduced myself.   I said that I was sincerely happy to have been able to make this meeting happen and that I hoped that God would make their spiritual life at our church a fruitful one.  As I was speaking I noticed that many of them were people whom I know and who know me.  They were so happy to see me.  Five or six of them came to me before leaving to hug me and thank me for having the courage to make something like this happen.  I was surprised at the depth of their sincerity and their evident  gratitude.  They were all wearing their emotions on their sleeves.  

The crowning came when I was alone with the priest who then told me that he did not believe his eyes when he walked into the room and beheld about 30 people in attendance.  He had come in the expectation of seeing some  5 or 6.  He could not contain his euphoria all the way back to his auto.  As he crouched to get into his vehicle, all he could find to say was, "I have to hope that the English speaking group scheduled for tomorrow night will be as numerous and as spiritually awake as this Hispanic group is."

Dear readers, please pray for us.  Many of us, I repeat, many of us, are in uncharted waters here.  All we have is the certainty that God wants us here.  Ask Him to give us the strength to help Him with these Ninivites without His having to carry us there in the belly of a whale.