What The Devil Hath Joined Together

With passage of the gay marriage bill in New York State, Americans are put on an awkward edge between God and civility. The New York bill includes a proviso that clergy will not be forced to marry homosexual couples. But how long will that withstand the test of the courts? Unfortunately, it will probably be a very short honeymoon.

This generation is not easy with the idea of shunning people for their race, religion, or sexual orientation. The latter is the one they’re least comfortable with, but are willing to overlook as God’s problem. The legalization of gay marriages, as opposed to civil unions, will make civility (ignoring what they do) rather more difficult.

No matter how you size it up, Mr. & Mr. Jones or Mrs. & Mrs. Smith, has an awkward sound to it. In the best boiled-frog method, we will be expected to become accustomed to such things. No one would really care what these couples do, in truth. People have enough to worry about in their own lives without worrying about what someone else in doing in theirs.

Now that it’s legal in New York, New Yorkers (New York liberals have never been ones to balk at social progress anyway) will be duty-bound to recognize these couples. Accepting them is one thing; recognizing such marriages as normal is quite another.

Jesus taught us not to judge others. Fair enough. But one can’t help thinking God is looking over our shoulders. What does He think of our silence in this matter? Does He regard us as weak or merciful in acknowledging homosexuality as “normal”?

Progressives have placed numerous legal barriers against our own better judgment. Their definition of discrimination is very loose. Just about any sign of disapproval or even just discomfort is now a punishable offense. That we should be merciful, as Christians, is rather obvious. The argument that the government should dictate our values to us to protect homosexual “rights” is not so clear.

Some have complained about extra-judicial laws against violent crimes against homosexuals. They didn’t see my co-worker come to more than one meeting with a black eye simply because he had a different sexual preference. Once, hoodlums threatened to shoot him.

Mercy and pity - voluntary acts - are fine. Being forced to write someone up as Mr. and Mr. doesn’t quite feel right. It feels wrong, like running your fingernails down a chalkboard. If it feels wrong, it probably is wrong. Tolerance can only go so far before it runs into the immutable fence of morality. Morality has become a dirty word. When morality becomes a despised concept, you know a society is in trouble.

There’s somebody who hasn’t been mentioned for generations – Lucifer. Somehow, it has become an offense to take the Devil’s name in vain, while God’s name is daily cursed and sullied. No one dares to speak the name of His Son.

Yet homosexuals want His blessing in marriage. In order to get the bill passed, activists agreed to add the stipulation that clergy need not marry anyone they deem unfit for the privilege. If they would do this thing they know perfectly well is against God’s will (have they read the story of Sodom and Gomorrah?), they’ll have no compunction about eventually forcing the clergy to unite un-unitable couples in matrimony, holy or not.

All is needed is a change in the wording of the vows: “What the Devil hath joined together, let no one put asunder.”

If anyone knoweth any reason why these couples should not be joined together in holy matrimony, let them speak now or forever hold their peace.