By Joseph Rembert

People who live in glass houses should not throw stones” must have been on the mind of State Rep. Patricia Todd as she boldly challenged those who oppose same-sex marriage to run the gauntlet of press and political opinion.

A federal judge’s ruling that state law banning same-sex marriage is unconstitutional, and the subsequent order from State Supreme Court Justice Roy Moore instructing probate judges across the state to ignore the federal order raises issues that were thought to be settled long ago.

The issue of state sovereignty was virtually declared null and void by the U.S. Supreme Court in its Chisolm v. Georgia ruling in 1793.

The U.S. Congress responded with trip-hammer rapidity by passing the Eleventh Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which was ratified by most of the states shortly thereafter.

The legal tug of war between the three branches of government has been continuous and it is no surprise to me that Justice Moore, acutely and astutely aware of America’s legal history, could not refrain from jumping in the mix of matters pertaining to marriage.

U.S. Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas argued that the court’s refusal to stay the district judge’s ruling until after his court rules sends a signal that the U.S. Supreme Court has already made up its mind as to how it will rule. Perhaps and very likely it has.

I love my country, and I assuredly love its constitution. Whatever the outcome of the U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling is this summer, that grand document, with its 27 amendments, demonstrates the genius of its authors. Though Washington, Jefferson, and countless others were slave owners, their imperfect constitution provided for amendments that would meet the needs of each “present age.” Many of Alabama’s citizens, who are of a different hue and heritage than the majority, even those who may agree with Justice Moore about the sanctity of marriage between a man and a woman, still cringe at the demand for “states’ rights” when that has meant in the past, the right to own slaves, or to disenfranchise a targeted group within society and oppress them in other areas.

All one has to do is read John Knox’s opening address to the 1901 Constitutional Convention of Alabama, as he tells delegates that they have an obligation to put into law measures that will keep the Negro in his place.

Justice Moore stated during an interview that his issue is not about who can love whom. He asserts that the economic and political benefits sought by same-sex couples can be achieved without destroying the sanctity of marriage.

The hard cold truth is that we heterosexuals have done a pretty good job of doing that ourselves. When preachers, professors and other professionals, cheat on and beat on our wives with impunity, when down-low and low-down brothers marry women, lacking the courage to declare their own true sexuality when half of the marriages between heterosexual couples end in divorce, who needs help in destroying marriage?

I have been a pastor for almost 40 years and I don’t intend to perform marriages between same sex couples because of my religious beliefs.

However, I repent for not having the courage to refuse to perform the weddings of couples who violate the “thou shalt not commit adultery” commandment and others that Christ himself has spoken about in scripture.

Sodom is often brought up in any debate about homosexuality, and rightfully so. However, let’s look at sinful Sodom as she is portrayed in Ezekiel 16:46-50. God’s word to Israel is, “Your older sister was Samaria, who lived to the north of you with her daughters, and your younger sister who lived to the south of you with her daughters was Sodom. You not only walked in their ways and copied their detestable practices, but in all your ways you soon became more depraved than they.

As surely as I live, declares the Sovereign Lord, your sister Sodom and her daughters never did what you and your daughter have done. Now this was the sin of your sister Sodom; She and her daughters were arrogant, overfed and unconcerned; they did not help the poor and needy. They were haughty and did detestable things before me. Therefore I did away with them as you have seen. (NIV)

When homosexuals are filling our pulpits and are leaders of the laity in our churches, and running our schools; when some men trade in their wives more often than they do their automobiles, should we not start tugging at the log in our own eye as we try to get the speck out of others?

James 1:27 tells us that pure religion is this: to visit the orphans and widows during their affliction and to keep ourselves true to God and unspotted by the world.

While the issue of same-sex marriage is debated in the courts and perhaps the Congress, I challenge all of us to do a little spot washing in the meantime.