I am officiating a wedding on Saturday afternoon.

[Pacifist Patriot]

Should I ask the couple to postpone a bit and wait for the Marriage Protection Amendment? I wouldn't want to be responsible for joining together what two men could put usunder. Can I stand up there in good conscience and wed these two people knowing their mutual love and commitment is at dire risk because gays haven't yet been completely outlawed from the rights these two are enjoying?

Sarcasm aside I would dearly love to have a "wed-in." Clergy and committed same-gender couples gather in DC. Mass marriage ceremony on the steps of the Capitol building along with public readings of the U.S. Constitution. Or a commitment marathon. Marry one couple right after the other 24 hours a day until no one is left who seeks public acknowledgment of their union.

I'm so mad today I'm fit to be tied. Not much leaves me sputtering but I've lost a lot of saliva over the last six years. One of my mental exercises when meditating on the inherent worth and dignity of every person is to imagine him or her as a helpless babe snuggled contentedly in a mother's arms. I've lost my ability to do that with Shrub. All I see is a baby with a grown-up Shrub's face sucking on an oil derrick. Aggh!

I hate this feeling. I love weddings. They are joyous and so full of hope and promise. Yet I know this Saturday I'm also going to have feelings of sadness and frustration in the back of my mind because I have so many friends who want me to officiate but the state prohibits it.

<PRIMAL SCREAM>

[northzax]

1. well, I'm going to a wedding this weekend as well

It's going to be a joyous occasion, with much toasting, laughing and dancing, as it should be. a celebration of love, commitment and life. And if God strikes us down because I will now have two sisters, then fuck Him. but I'm not holding my breath.

And yes, I will be wearing my ITMFA lapel pin.

[BR_Parkway]

2. "if anyone here has any objection why these two people should not be

joined..."?

[northzax]

3. that would be a good time for the thunderbolt, yes.

I figure God's a big boy now, if he wants to make his wishes known, he should do so. otherwise, his silence is his assent to the joy.

[Lisa]

5. funny -- in British Columbia, there was a noticeable lack of thunder

... when the province allowed same-sex marriage a few years ago. One would have thought (from the nasty phone calls received in government officials' offices from lobbying efforts organized by Bush's base in the US) that we would all have been submerged in brimstone, but the weather seems fairly normal these days. (Except for the possible effects of global warming, which got underway years before certain people decided to make marriage a "wedge" issue.)

A while ago, I was at the local hospital, when the woman in front of me was filling out the paperwork for her spouse, who has Alzheimer's. The nurse, and the other people in the waiting room, did not seem to think it at all unusual that the spouse was also female. The staff ushered her through the "immediate family only" door ... wouldn't that have been the perfect time for a thunderbolt, if Fred Phelps is indeed correct? But it seems that the Almighty has better things to do, than express disapproval of spouses looking after each other "in sickness and in health".

[catnhatnh]

4. Render unto Caesar....

..a rasberry,and render unto God a consumated relationship in his image....How's that for an agnostics reply using their texts???