And Then I Said …

You know, I don’t understand something. Why do people require other people to keep the Ten Commandments but don’t keep them themselves? Why do they hold strangers to standards they themselves don’t attain? Why do they imprison people for stealing yet eat unpurchased grapes in the produce aisle? I find it difficult enough to stand erect beside a yardstick. I don’t have time to measure everyone else along my way.

I started this post with a pithy story about card games and how opponents make each other keep the rules. And as I typed it I just grew more angry and less in the mood to muse. So I’ll dispense with the meandering. I don’t understand opposition to gay marriage. Why does anyone care or feel they have the right to decide how others live their lives, choose their partners, or share their emotions? I see this entire issue as very uncomplicated.

1. If you are against gay marriage, then don’t marry someone of your same sex.
2. If you are against gay people, then don’t have sex with someone of your same sex.
3. If you feel that gay marriage is against your religion, then remember that word “your.”
4. If you feel gay marriage is against American values, then you’ve forgotten what being American actually means. As Americans we accept people who believe differently than we do. That’s why we aren’t extremists. And that’s why the forefathers sought refuge in this country. It’s simple civicism.

God gave everyone free will. Exercise your will as you will. But that doesn’t mean everyone should be willing to bend to your will just because you will it. Look - gay marriage is a civil action. They want to be legally recognized. It’s a question of legality and civility. And as April 15 rapidly approaches, you’d better inform them quickly if they aren’t entitled to full citizenship and fundamental federal rights and protections because I think it would be enormously unjust to make them pay taxes when they are unable to experience and enjoy the same rights and responsibilities and freedoms that other taxpayers are entitled to enjoy.

I’m a baptized Roman Catholic who tries to keep the Ten Commandments and adhere to the fundamental teachings of The Church with every fiber of my being. And I absolutely and without reservation affirm all the canonical structures of The Church. I believe that Holy Matrimony is a Sacrament. I believe the fundamental rule of The Church concerning Holy Matrimony. The Church teaches that a valid marriage is a Sacrament between two baptized Roman Catholics in the state of Grace. The Church teaches that a marriage between a Catholic and a protestant is a “mixed marriage” and is forbidden by The Church. And those marriages are only allowed when the couple receives a dispensation.

I believe that. Whether I have your concurrence is not my concern. I don’t require your consent. Choose your beliefs. Participate wherever you feel comfortable. Pick and choose or select and dismiss. Wed or not. I don’t care if you commit to female, fowl, fellow, for now or forever. It’s of no consequence to me. And my beliefs should be of no consequence to you.
And don’t email me some sort of passage or pamphlet that explains that I’m wrong. I don’t care if you think I’m wrong. I need neither condemnation nor claque.

And don’t send me some sort of email that says you knew of some priest somewhere who somehow said my beliefs were somewhat antiquated. Priests don’t give Sacraments. God does. No one knows when a man or woman walks up to that altar whether of not Sanctifying Grace is applied to his or her soul. Only God knows that. No one knows whether a child is Baptized or a Host is Consecrated or a sin is Absolved or a marriage is Sanctified but God. A priest lives in the Sacrament of Holy Orders. A priest is the outward sign that the Sacrament is present. Therefore the priest is a sacramental. A priest is not a Sacrament. Priesthood is the Sacrament.

Now here’s my point. Lutherans will say that I am wrong. Baptists will too. Muslims, Buddhists, hell - other Catholics will decry. So feel free to add anyone to this list. No one is asking that all religions recognize all marriages. And that’s why gays should be allowed to marry. As a nation we will never agree on the fundamental attributes of a spiritually binding marriage. It has been a question before the earth for centuries. It has divided churches. It has divided nations. It has divided families. It has divided souls from salvation.

Gay marriage should be legal in the United States of America. It is not a question of sanctification. It is a question of legalization. It is an issue about civil rights. It is a movement about having the right to be treated with civility. I don’t want the Congress of the United States to decide and discern the attributes of a marriage. We’ve given them the right to cast ballots. Jesus Christ, let’s not give them the right to cast stones. Let God decide who’s sanctified.