Odd, To Say The Least Of It

                             "Marriage is a fine institution, but I'm not ready for an institution."
                                                                                               Mae West, 1893 - 1980

   It probably would not shock Ms West to know that at least 50% of Americans of marriageable age agree with her.  The divorce rate has been hovering around that mark for some time, and shows no sign of diminishing.  Instead, increasingly over the last  fifty years or so, unfettered cohabitation has become the fashion.
   In response, a Defense of Marriage has risen.  The moat has been filled, the drawbridge has been raised, the gates have clanged shut.  Manning the barricades are Catholic Bishops and Conservative Christian Evangelists.  Their aim is not to keep people in marriage, it's to keep people out, which is odd, to say the least of it.
They have defined the enemy.  It is the population of Gays, Lesbians, Bisexuals and Transsexuals.
   The anomaly is that defenders of a fading institution are doing battle against a minority of people who only wish to exercise their human right by becoming part of that very same institution.  With fine irony, married GBLT's, however incidentally, can even do their bit to stem the outflow.
   As usual, the defenders' tactics prey upon ignorance, superstition, and fear.  In today's world, GBLTs are not often judged by their personalities, talents, accomplishments, nor the durability of their relationships.  They are most often judged with cold and malevolent prejudice based solely upon their sexuality.
   The question is, when did Christianity become exclusive?  How odd it is that these men of the cloth, who constantly invoke the name of Jesus, deny His teachings by denying certain of God's children.  Where has the milk of human kindness gone?  Has Christian charity become qualitative?  Does no one remember the Golden Rule?
   When first stoking their flames of persecution, these shepards of the purse sought to prohibit same sex marriage by Constitutional amendment, failing, thickly, to note that such a proposal would be Unconstitutional.  They have since switched their attention to the states, and their prohibition of human rights will appear on many on many ballots in 2012.  They don't want the land of the free.  They want the land of the free only if they say so.
   Thinking people must resist this reckless divide.  Let the resistance begin now, in this Christmas Season of Peace on Earth, Good Will Toward Men.