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The Devil and Same Sex Marriage


Luce, aka the devil, sent me the following note regarding the recent same sex marriage U.S. Supreme Court decision. It seems the devil revels in our unhappiness but is never completely happy. He writes:

Dear Deacon Tom:  

I am not totally pleased about the same sex marriage decision by the Supreme Court.  I regret reading the dubiously disagreeable dribble drafted by Justice Anthony Kennedy in his majority opinion: “No union is more profound than marriage, for it embodies the highest ideals of love, fidelity, devotion, sacrifice and family.” Yuck, people.  

Yet I must admit that it was ingenious of me to have influenced its drafting. This decision will gloriously cause incremental unrest among believers. That a Catholic drafted the opinion is the pièce de résistance. Of all the Catholics on this Court, (and there are nine), I’ve been keeping very close tabs on Justice Kennedy who is the least dramatic of all. While Justice Antonin Scalia is truly entertaining, I depend more upon “boring” to get the job done.  

Kennedy is always the swing vote provocateur. He was such a vulnerable young Catholic altar boy, "straight-laced" and little "goody goody.”  I once influenced his lobbyist father to jokingly offer him $100 if he would do something to get himself picked up by the police. He didn’t bite. During his college years, Kennedy traveled around Europe one summer in a red Volkswagen; Volkswagen drivers who graduated from Stanford were prime targets for me in the 60’s. Kennedy’s dad was a man after my own heart. He once gave the future Supreme Court Justice a bottle of whiskey to take on the trip, which he used only for medicinal purposes (purportedly gargling with it when he felt a cold or sore throat coming on. 

Early on I worked behind the scenes to keep Judge Bork off the high court while Kennedy, President Reagan’s pinch hitter, would have probably remained in California practicing boring tax law. Boring and mediocrity can succeed to make your world interesting.  Kennedy is trying to be a good guy, attempting to ensure that: “no one is condemned to live in loneliness, excluded from one of civilizations oldest institutions.” Have a heart people. 

On the other hand, I abhor the institution of marriage in all its forms, including the Las Vegas ones. I think the Court should have come up with an opinion that marriage between two of anything is bad. Marriage between a man and woman is as incompatible as between cats and dogs, oil and water, or eating pizza before riding the Aerosmith roller coaster ride at Disney’s Hollywood Studios.   I would like them all to fail. I have always thought that the “enduring bonds of marriage” as referenced in the Court’s majority opinion are anything but enduring. Nothing is enduring, especially human beings. I love the irony of ambience and context of the decision. While I don’t like Kennedy’s language, I like how it works to deflower the pious meanings of marriage held by the Church. Marriage is really a prison. But if by the crafting of language “marriage” is redefined let’s have marriage between the dogs and cats. I advocate you not limit such defined happiness to only two people? The more the “merrier” (pun intended). And as such, this redefinition could be the elixir from which your species can (in Justice Kennedy’s words), “find other freedoms, such as expression, intimacy and spirituality,” well damn, it all makes complete sense.  Regarding those “other freedoms,” – well the sky’s the limit. This is why I love the libertarian call to anarchy, to unleash those other freedoms. I quote Shakespeare once more intoning the great Marc Antony:  “Blood and destruction shall be so in use, and dreadful objects so familiar that mothers shall but smile when they behold their infants quartered with the hands of war; …Caesar's spirit, raging for revenge, … come hot from hell, shall in these confines with a monarch's voice cry 'Havoc,' and let slip the dogs of war”.  

On the other hand, dear Deacon, “I really am in the details. I really am in the thin unobtrusive spaces between the lines of the fine print. If you listen to me, I’ll always shed light where darkness is. After all, my name is “Luce.”  Hope you are having a nice radiant hot summer.   Don’t forget me! 

Sincerely, your BFF,

Luce

And so it continues.

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