Sunday Afternoon goin' down....

I promise to stop soon; but Mike Huckabee was on the TeeVee Machine while I was in the kitchen canning up peaches (salsa, chutney, brandied, and the rest will be just canned), so I didn't hear him say this:

"I don't think a lot of pastors and Christian schools are going to have a choice" but to resist, Huckabee said on ABC's "This Week." "They either are going to follow God, their conscience and what they truly believe is what the scripture teaches them, or they will follow civil law."

A:  as a Christian pastor, I don't have to conduct any wedding I don't want to.  I've known many a pastor all but brag about threatening not to officiate at a wedding if the couple didn't accede to his pre-marital counseling; never knew one who actually went through on the threat.

Most churches don't like the reputation of turning away weddings.  Gay weddings might be a different matter, though; for awhile, at least.  But no couple is going to sue the pastor to make him stand up and lead the vows.  There is, quite literally, a 13th Amendment to consider here.  You can't force someone to work for you, be that person a pastor for a wedding, or an employee for your business.*

B:  I guess those of us who think we've been following God and our conscience and what we truly believe scripture teaches us on this subject since at least 1969 are not Christians?  Or pastors?  Because the UCC has authorized a same-sex wedding since I can remember, and yet we followed civil law and never considered the service in our Book of Worship a wedding with all the privileges attendant thereunto (legal beagle talk, very posh!).  Well, until Friday, anyway.

Get over yourself Mr. Huckabee.  Nobody is going to make a martyr out of you over this issue.  In fact, you're a Baptist, you don't believe in the sanctity of the saints or the blessedness of the martyrs.

*Please note this is to be distinguished from opening your business to all comers, and then deciding certain customers are not worthy of your expertise and abilities.  Pastors can refuse to wed couples because pastors do not offer their custom to all and sundry on the sidewalk.  Bakeries and florists, on the other hand, do, and should no more be able to refuse a same-sex couple than they would refuse Jews, blacks, Asians, Catholics, Muslims, Sikhs....

You get the idea.