The sun in his orbit obediently shines(?)

Today in Iowa, people will go to courthouses and enter into civil marriages. Some of those people will be same gender couples. The fact that these marriages happened years ago in Canada, Spain, Belgium, South Africa and that all of those societies seem to be doing just fine is perhaps the most frightening scenario that some religious leaders could envision.

After all, if Canada was struck by a giant asteroid, Spain slid into the Atlantic, Belgium was smitten with flesh eating virus and South Africa were hit with a devastating drought, then, they could claim GOD (spelled GAWD) was punishing the sinners. However, God does not seem to have acted as cued.

All of this could cause people to question. People might actually discover that the lesbian couples at the PTA meeting are decent parents and that the gay couples who live on our block are nice neighbors. It is hard to hate nice people, even when you have been told they are sinners. Then, the scary part would come, they would remember that the religious leaders who warned them that all manner of evil would occur, were wrong.

Be not afraid! Religious leaders have also condemned scientists for claiming that the earth revolved around the sun. There were religious leaders who condemned abolitionists and claimed that the Bible mandates slavery. Religious leaders also warned society of the evil of interracial marriage. Religious leaders told us that the man was the head of the household. Permitting women to work (for pay), own property, vote or hold elected office would undermine the family. Everyone forgot all of those warnings/condemnations and the dire consequences such liberalism would produce.

When Catholic religious leaders direct the people, they claim they represent the Holy Spirit speaking through the magisterial authority of the Church. When later Catholic religious leaders correct their predecessor’s errors, they claim that it was churchmen and not the Church who misspoke.

Why did people overlook all of these things? Because, there were good religious people teaching, working in hospitals, running free clinics, helping the homeless, feeding the hungry and fighting for the rights of the marginalized, all in the name of God.

Today in Iowa, people will enter into civil marriages. Some of these will be same gender couples and God seems to be far less upset than many religious leaders.