The Catholic Church in Minnesota is going all out to win the anti-gay marriage amendment vote. According to Archbishop John Nienstedt, the future of marriage depends on its passage. Never mind that the Catholic practice of annulment is the real mockery of marriage.
Declared a Canon Law in the eleventh century, annulment treats marriage as a life-long contract that can be declared null and void under four conditions. Those conditions amount to a back door way out of marriage in order to protect the Church’s prohibition against divorce. The best that can be said about this practice is that it is disingenuous, but in truth it was exposed for the political fraud it actually is in 1997 when Sheila Rauch Kennedy took the Massachusetts Diocese to court for declaring her marriage “annulled” at the request of her then husband, former Congressman Joseph Kennedy (son of the late Robert Kennedy). She said she would not allow the church to render her children “illegitimate,” which would have been the de facto effect of the annulment. She won her case, and, thereby, showed the world the mockery of marriage annulment represents.
For the Catholic Church in Minnesota to be the largest financial contributor to a campaign supposedly to protect the sacredness of marriage is yet another example of how the church continues to ignore the impact hypocrisy has on its credibility. But the Catholic Church is not alone in this denial. Protestant congregations are also guilty of all manner of hypocrisy, including support for this amendment, all the while pretending their hypocrisy will go unnoticed by an increasingly skeptical public weary of religious moralism. It’s actually astonishing how foolish churches are.
One of the most disturbing things about church support for the anti-gay marriage amendment here and in other states is the fact that they have become party to intentional deception by the marketing firms employed to win the day. An ad running in Minnesota says that marriage equality in other states has forced churches, schools, and businesses to defend themselves against discrimination. This is an outright lie, but it is nothing compared to the fact that it is being paid for by churches. You would think people who claim to be doing God’s work would have the courage, commitment, and presence of mind to say that anything and everything put before the public in support of the amendment be true, that no ad could be intentionally false or misleading. Yet they obviously haven’t done so, their conscience soothed by the belief that the end justifies the means.
As in other states, it is quite possible that the Archbishop and his allies will win the vote once again. But if they succeed, they will not only have encased discrimination in the state Constitution, they will have succeeded in bringing shame on themselves, and, in the public’s view, on all the rest of us who claim to be Christian.
linnposts.com 
Whenever I read/hear about the hypocrisy that surrounds us, I think of my mom and the words she used to quote: “Judge not that ye be not judged.” I know we all do it, but we should try not to.
having seen this discriminatory amendment pass in NC there are many un-intended consequences such as not allowing partner relationships gay or straight to have the partner on their health insurance, also the children of these relationship are potenially ineligible for coverage
.We heard the same crap from all of the churches here, Jan you are so right on with this blog
Linn, there is no parallel or comparison what-so-ever between “same sex marriage” and a biblical union between a “man and woman”. Therefore, annulment is a man-woman topic that addresses only Man and Woman, not Man and Man. Dragging in a same sex “union” seems disingenuous; it doesn’t exist in the normal sphere of either pure human common sense nor will it ever pass muster within the teachings of our Creator. How did some of us get so far off the moral course? What are you thinking when you speak of giving sanctity to same sex “marriage”? Sad to see another ”man of the cloth” endorsing a behavior so contrary to Christian teachings, not to mention commonsense.
Yes, as you say, “It’s actually astonishing how foolish churches are”. I’ll suggest that many churches have become foolish in recent years because non-believers have tried to redefine “Family”, “Marriage” and the “Sacredness of Marriage”. I heard a prayer recently asking God to give us what we need, not what we deserve. We got what we deserve four years ago when a blinded mob voted for a Muslim leader that has dragged America down to Godless extremes. We will not survive another four years of Godless anti Christian leadership.
I am having a difficult time keeping on subject (same sex marriage, or was it annulments?) with so many atrocious attacks against our God of Abraham. Perhaps we will have time to expose the abortion issue (murdering over a million unborn lives a year) and calling it “women’s choice”
I won’t spend time worrying about “annulments”. God addressed the relationship and expectations of one man and one woman for a life-time with examples that explain how this sacred union should be regarded.
Respectfully,
Harvey Hamilton
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I am wondering what planet Hamilton is on if he really believes marriage is for life, god or not. Statistically 50 % of traditional marriages end in Divorce. Of course the right wing thinks Leave it to Beaver was a real family.
Harvey, Harvey, Harvey. You obviously have a lot of passion around your views. I like that, but experience has taught me that you can’t take out of a person’s mind with reason what reason didn’t put into it in the first place. I have to admit that most of what you said strikes me as falling into that category, especially since you apparently believe everyone who disagrees with you is a member of a godless, blinded mob unable to see the truth you see. The only thing I can say is that I am guilty as charged.
I think that marriage is “sacred” it reflects God’s intention to share the gifts of love and joy of love with two, who, through their love, will bring the fruits of their joining to the world “for the benefit of the world” as well as for themselves. This sacredness makes it more than a physical bond, more than an emotional bond. It is, in its deepest meaning, a spiritual bond, built out of the depth of love between two souls. A sacred marriage is a covenant between two who love each other in God and with God, whose joining becomes an expression of the desire of each to love and serve God together. This, then, is the nature of a spiritual partnership that is sacred: to enhance the Divine within each partner; to assist in the revelation of each soul to itself and to the world; to bring into the world, whether through action or more quietly through a way of being, sacred values, values that extend outward and reflect the goodness of God and of life.
I am hopeful that one day all Christians will understand that “Love between two individuals” will form the foundation of a sacred marriage regardless of gender.
Most interesting, these responses so far. I am most in agreement with Monica. No surprise, I’m sure, but am glad for Harvey’s response too. Harvey highlights the problem of humans attempting to “own” God with his “our God of Abraham” statement and tenaciously clings to a “belief” stemming from certain interpretations of the Bible. This is what many conservarive thinkers do. This is why more spiritually attuned voices must be heard to say that life is NOT black and white! There is dusk and dawn, fall and autumn, spirit and flesh, natural and supernatural, variety in creation beyond our understanding including the existence of feminine and masculine energy which are infused into male and female bodies. Both energies exist in both bodies and sometimes the distribution is great enough for the energy and body to NOT MATCH. Still, these are people! Souls and flesh in one and they ARE of God! This is just a small example of how big and varied God creation is.
For my part, I’d rather see people quietly living out family values as best they can in their own lives, than hear any politicians preaching them…
Harvey,
Both Jan and Guy have been kind in their responses to your Neanderthal beliefs and opinions. I will mince no words: You are ignorant, in every sense of the word! You should have stuck to playing a nice guitar….