The Great Commission

Jesus Christ is Lord of all.  He proved it by very publicly allowing Himself to be annihilated, murdered, "smeared" to dust and rising again.  Wow, that's proof enough for me.  Following His Resurrection and immediately before ascending bodily back into heaven, he gave His church the Great Commission:

At that time, Jesus said to His disciples; All power in heaven and on earth has been given to Me.  Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you; and behold, I am with you all days even unto the consummation of the world. (emphasis mine)

That isn't a request or a recommendation.  That is an order; Go! Do! Teach! Baptize! Bring them all into My church!  This makes perfect sense when we understand that there is exactly one way for anyone to get to heaven, Jesus and Jesus founded His church, the present day Catholic Church to funnel all peoples to Him.  The Church holds the "keys to the kingdom of heaven" through the authority to bind sins or loose them according to the commandments and teachings of Christ.  Understanding this, it is right and just, and a duty, that anyone with knowledge of Christ and His teachings should inform the ignorant, for it is in their best interests; for their eternal salvation.

There is, today, a heresy called Indifferent ism.  This heresy maintains that all religions are basically the same and that everyone, by whichever path they choose, will find their way to heaven.  There are numerous biblical citations which expose that lie, regardless, today, it is very popular.  This is a huge reason so many people are abandoning the Catholic Church.  It explains why a country such as Ireland, which has a Catholic history, can today approve, by popular vote, legally sanctioned sodomy.  Indifferent ism is so rampant that the majority of Catholics believe it is fine to contracept, co-habitate before marriage, and abort (in certain cases).  This same majority disagrees on the primacy of the Catholic Church, her teachings on the Eucharist, confession, the male priesthood, not to mention her condemnation of homo-sexuality.

There is an ominous mood swing which bodes ill for the future of our Church.  This hostility is manifesting itself in many ways.  St. Louis University, a Catholic university, felt the heat recently.  On their campus there has been a statue titled, Where the Rivers Meet.  The statue depicts Father Pierre-Jean De Smet, a Jesuit missionary of the nineteenth century doing exactly what Jesus told him to do!  Today, however, it came under fire for being an image of "colonialism, imperialism, racism, and...Christian and white supremacy".  Well, they got one right - Christian supremacy is exactly what Father De Smet's motivation was.  Think of the native American who's heart was turned by Father De Smet, who came to love Jesus, learned how to live and died in God's graces.  Can we really expect him to consider Father De Smet to be a grubby imperialist?  Rather, I expect that they are the best of brothers in heaven.  What worries me is the way our Catholic institutions don't even defend themselves, they just cave.  Rather than using the noise as a teaching moment, they let the errors prevail.

Today, they are ripping away the symbols, tomorrow they will rip away the truths.  It will take great courage for a true Catholic to stand firm, unlike the administrators of St. Louis University, and stick with Christ, come what may.  Looking down the road I see major fault-line on the homo-sexual movement.  A realistic scenario has the Supreme Court of the United States declaring that homo-sexuals have a constitutional right to "marry".  Very soon after that, the next day probably, they will be asking our priests to perform a sacrament which is impossible.  This acid test will expose the priests and bishops who are true and those who are false.  The Church will severely fracture.  Our lay people will be forced to choose who to follow.  Do not be confused.  Simply ask yourself, what would Father De Smet do?

A Woman's Choice

Kimberly Richardson, 25, died last Saturday night.  She was ambushed and shot behind the Raleigh, NC mall where she worked.  Kimberly was six months pregnant and the doctors were able to deliver her daughter by cesarean section before she died.  Her boyfriend, Daniel Steele was arrested and charged with her murder.  Her daughter lies in a neonatal intensive care hospital fighting for her life.

This story rises to the level of Shakespeare in tragic proportions, yet it isn't unique or even rare.  Reading the news week after week will reveal a common trend of men attacking their pregnant girlfriends in an effort to prevent their delivering the babies they are carrying.  One can also read stories of men slipping abortifacient drugs surreptitiously to the women with whom they previously whispered tender words and caressed.  This trend is natural in a society which has abandoned all pretense of following Christian precepts.

Pre Christian societies were the world of lousy men.  Women were treated slightly better than the barn animals.  Their utility to men were of domestic servitude and, of course, the obvious charms.  Beyond that, they were disposable.  It was Christ who taught that women possess a high dignity and that it is a grave sin to abuse them.  Elevating the woman's dignity raised the character of men.  That is why His commandments prohibit sexual relations until a permanent marriage is solemnised.  He also ratified an equal dignity to babies and children.  To kill the smallest of our people is a crime which merits special condemnation and punishments.  In the teachings of Christ, a woman meets a man and withholds her physical pleasures until he promises to love her, care for her and her children for the rest of their lives.  From that pledge of fidelity comes children who are loved by both of their parents.  It is the earthly imitation of the Holy Trinity, man - woman - child - family, one unit, one heart.

Our first step away from this ideal was the universal acceptance of civil divorce and re-marriage.  This is in opposition to Christ's command that marriage is permanent, only severed by the death of one spouse.  Once married, always married!  This is the basis of a woman's confidence in allowing a man to come to her.  Once pregnant, always a mother!  The idea of allowing divorce is simply a shell game to con a woman into sex and leaving her flat later.  In truth, if one civilly divorces his spouse and attempts to marry another, he commits adultery.  In the end, there will be hell to pay.

The second step down to the mire was the universal acceptance of contraception.  With contraception we tried to eliminate the possibility of pregnancy, thus we no longer need to even go through the messy marriage and divorce thing which lead us to universal acceptance of sex outside of marriage.  Contraception is another con to lure women to bed without a permanent commitment.  Use of contraception by anyone, for any reason, rebels against Christ and will only result in heartache and condemnation.

The third step down is truly diabolical, abortion.  How in hell can ANYONE argue this as a good?!  It is sickening to listen to politicians, women's advocates and such arguing that abortion is good for women.  Again, this is only about abusing women, sleeping with them without consequence.  The nasty word "Abortion" is hidden in the euphemism "Choice".  Any euphemism is a lie.  There is no choice.  That abortion is available in our society means that a woman, even though she be personally against the idea, will find herself being pushed into the clinic with threats of all her support structures being pulled away otherwise.  The man has conned her again!  Worse, now another person is murdered.  This action, if not repented of, will lead to damnation as well.

Now here we are at the low point where men are attacking and murdering women with whom they have slept.  Lust always leads to murder, so we shouldn't be surprised.

We must climb out of this moral pig sty.  We can do this only by making the true and proper choices and rejecting the false ones.  Each gender must make the choice to follow Christ.  Women, choose to hold yourself to a high standard.  Love Christ first.  Make a man earn your trust, love and fidelity.  Do not associate with men of base character.  They will be easy to spot.  Men, same for you.  Choose to be of a high character.  Seek Christ firstly, then you will meet the right woman.  Do not self encourage sexual temptations through pornography, movies, internet.  Do not masturbate.  These are sins which kill the soul.  Commit yourself to the ideals of honor, charity and faith.  When you ask a woman to marry mean it until your last breath!  The joys of such a marriage cannot be described.

The key to true and lasting happiness is Christ.  In the end, He is all that matters.  The whole of human history is a tapestry woven by men and women, each making their individual way to heaven or hell.  Choose heaven and experience a foretaste of it here.  Save sex for a Christian marriage.

Religious Freedom

There has been a lot of furor over Indiana's Religious Freedom Act.  It isn't surprising since the motivation to write the law was to try to bring some sanity to the hysterics surrounding the gay rights movement which is barreling through our civil arena like a runaway freight train.  The law was never intended to sanction unrestricted commercial discrimination against openly gay people.  It was intended to protect Christian people.  "Protect them from what!?" is the usual reply.

The disconnect lies in philosophies.  The gay friendly philosophy assigns the individual as his own lord and master and there is no moral authority above him.  Through this outlook he is allowed to go where he pleases and do what he wishes and that obviously includes within his sexual sphere.  Since he can only see in the one dimensional earthly plane, he has no fear of the sacred or of higher obligations.  Thus, it can only be through unfair discrimination, an internal decision of the offender, that commercial service could be refused.  That, of course, cannot be tolerated.  On the other hand, since there is no higher authority, there is no reason such a person could not be persuaded, by force, into a more tolerant position.  So now we have the media war over the Indiana law which swirled around the pizzeria, a small business.

The Christian philosophy certainly holds that there is a higher authority, God almighty.  God has taught through scripture and His Church that the gay lifestyle is gravely evil and can only result in the eternal spiritual death of anyone who engages in these acts.  Before I am accused of being a homophobe, I need to add that any sexual activity outside of a church approved marriage is gravely evil and carries the same penalties.  And here is the pivot point of the whole argument.  What is a marriage?  A marriage is a union of a male husband and a female wife which was solemnly approved by the Church who is the steward in these matters for God.  The marriage sacrament is defined by God and administered by the Church.  There is no other authority which can redefine any part of it.  This summer the Supreme Court of the United States will issue a ruling on the constitutionality of state laws which prohibit same sex marriage.  I expect that they will strike down all such laws and that the civil right of same sex couples to marry will be universally recognized in the United States.  The huge problem lies in the fact that the Supreme Court has no such authority.  It will still be a grave evil and add to that the sacrilege of various churches "celebrating" such unions.  These are grave sins and there will be hell to pay.

Clown judges lead souls to hell.

That brings us to the shop owner's moral catch-22.  Let's use the Indiana pizzeria's owners as an example.  If an openly gay couple strolls into their pizzeria and orders a large pizza, there is no problem and there is no discrimination.  Indeed, I will fight anyone over their right to engage in any lawful commerce.  The problem rises when they ask the pizzeria to cater their wedding.  This is something no good Christian could do because the wedding itself is sacrilege and seriously offends God.  No one expects the pizzeria owners to cater to a bank robbery.  The Religious Freedom Act was an attempt to protect those shop owners who in good conscious could not ever support the travesty of a same sex "marriage'.  Shop owners around the country have been losing their livelihoods over this very issue.  Any shop who routinely does wedding related business has been feeling this heat.  As for forcing them into a more tolerant attitude, one would be foolish to try, because in the end it is a simple decision to surrender the business and home in order to save one's eternal life.  That is why the law was written and that is why we will never have civil peace as long as our people fail to turn back to God and surrender these morally evil philosophies.

Follow Christ!  Live His commandments.  He will show you the way to peace.

I Am So Not Ready For Hillary

There Is No Salvation Outside The Catholic Church

Ann Barnhardt wrote the following in her Blog www.barnhardt.biz.  I explains so much more clearly what I tried to explain with the churches A, B and C illustration in my post titled Our Lady Of Guadalupe.  With gratitude to Ann Barnhardt, here is her excellent explanation of the seemingly provocative statement:  

There is no salvation outside the Catholic Church

I have been meaning to write this up for months, as it is a regular question that lands in the ol’ inbox.  It is on people’s minds, both inside and outside the Church, especially with the imbecilic, contra-educated words and deeds coming out of the Bishop of Rome in these dark, dark days.  It is time to explain this clearly and forthrightly, because it is actually one of the truths that was most persuasive and attractive in my conversion process.  Why?  Because the explanation is logical, coherent, and satisfyingly beautiful.

This statement is TRUE:

There is no salvation outside of the Catholic Church.

The reason why almost everyone in post-Christian western culture today blanches at this is because we have been taught to deny that there is, in fact, any such thing as “truth”.  ONE TRUTH.  We have been savagely propagandized and manipulated to accept that 2+2 equals 4, AND 7, and 8,349,085 – if that is what someone else wants.  Because there is “my truth” and “your truth” and “we each have our own truth”, and “life is a journey of discovering our own truth”.  The infiltrators have not only torn down the entire notion of truth via soft, cultural means, but also through the hardest of the hard sciences – MATHEMATICS.  Were you taught logic at any point within the context of mathematics?  Do you know what a “truth table” is?  If you are under the age of 45, almost certainly not.  Logic is the use and study of valid reasoning, that is, truth and falsity.  Thus, it was totally scrubbed from math curricula in the western world by the infiltrators by necessity, because logic is the hammer that instantly smashes the vast majority of the staggering, staggering bullshit that we are all, as we speak, drowning in.  The reason why even functionally intelligent people today simply cannot parse current events and get their heads around what should be extremely simple-to-grasp dynamics is because people have been conditioned to view as normal – if not virtuous – the simultaneous holding of utterly contradictory positions.

So, there is exactly, precisely ONE TRUTH, and thus, there must be by mathematical definition, be exactly, precisely ONE CHURCH.  There CANNOT be multiple “churches”, which, by definition, hold contradictory positions (hence their distinctiveness one from another), because two contradictory things CANNOT BOTH BE TRUE.  And we know that there is a CHURCH, because Our Lord Himself in the Gospels made repeated mention of it, not the least of which was this hard-to-get-around statement:

“Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH.”

So we know, just from that, that Our Lord does have, in fact, a Church, and that He has ONE Church, because he used the singular form of the noun.  This doesn’t even take into consideration the Holy Spirit’s extensive discussion of the Church as the Body and Bride of Christ through the pen of St. Paul in his epistles.  Look, when God Almighty, Incarnate, says, “I WILL BUILD MY CHURCH”, all debates about whether or not there even is a Church ends.  If a person is so far gone that they can’t grind their way through that gearbox, then there’s nothing I  or anyone else can do.

Now let’s discuss what the Church is.  The Church consists of THREE PARTS:
1.  The Church Militant – this is the Church on Earth, this is what we the living see.
2.  The Church Suffering – this is Purgatory, where the souls of the saved go to be purged of all attachment to sin so that they might enter into the presence of God – the Beatific Vision.
3.  The Church Triumphant – this is the Beatific Vision, The Most Holy Trinity, the angels and saints dwelling inside, pondering, adoring and worshipping God from the inside.

Some day, both the Church Militant and the Church Suffering will cease to exist.  The earth, the physical universe, will someday cease to exist, and there will be no additional human beings made.  The reason God has not yet brought about what we call “The end of the world” is because there are not yet enough human beings.  God wants more people for heaven.  Including the babies conceived by the poor, in violent or disordered circumstances, and by women who have already had multiple c-sections.  GOD, not Pope Francis, determines how many humans there should be, and God is very, very clear on this question.  He. Wants. More. People. To. Love.

Since the domain of the Church Militant is the physical universe, when there is no longer a physical universe or living human beings, there will be no Church Militant.  Some day, the last saved soul will be fully purged of all attachment to sin and will enter heaven, and on that day the Church Suffering will cease to exist.

The Church Triumphant, however, will always exist, because the domain of the Church Triumphant is the Triune Godhead Himself, Who Is Existence Itself.  Ever pray the Gloria Patri?  Glory be to the Father, and to the Son, and to the Holy Ghost.  As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be, world without end.  Amen.

So let’s get our LOGIC jam on now, shall we?  The Church, of which there is only one, is the Body and Bride of Christ, and all of the saved either are now or eventually will be in the Church Triumphant, which indwells, now and forever, inside the Triune Godhead.

Now grind through this, and fight the contra-education you have received as a child of the post-Christian, post-Modern west.  How, EXACTLY, could a person be “saved” and be OUTSIDE of the Church?

Let’s attack this from the angle of the Judgment.  What happens to every person when they die?  They are judged by Jesus Christ.

Stop.

Do you believe this?  No, seriously.  Do you believe that EVERY SINGLE HUMAN BEING, regardless of race, religious confession, time, place, or any other variable, is judged by Jesus Christ?  If you do not believe this, then I really don’t see how you can possibly claim to be a Christian.  Now, if you don’t like hearing this, you can go listen to Pope Francis spew some irrational, illogical, Modernist, faux-ecumenical garbage, but understand that his priority is very different from mine.  I am interested in the eternal fate of your soul.  Pope Francis, it seems, just wants to be popular.  Let’s go through a list:

What happens to Christians when they die?
They are judged by Jesus Christ, and will either attain the Beatific Vision in the Church Triumphant, or be damned to hell.

What happens to Jews when they die?
They are judged by Jesus Christ, and will either attain the Beatific Vision in the Church Triumphant, or be damned to hell.

What happens to Hindus when they die?
They are judged by Jesus Christ, and will either attain the Beatific Vision in the Church Triumphant, or be damned to hell.

What happens to atheists when they die?
They are judged by Jesus Christ, and will either attain the Beatific Vision in the Church Triumphant, or be damned to hell.

What happens to musloids when they die?
They are judged by Jesus Christ, and will either attain the Beatific Vision in the Church Triumphant, or be damned to hell.

What happens to animists when they die?
They are judged by Jesus Christ, and will either attain the Beatific Vision in the Church Triumphant, or be damned to hell.

Noticing a pattern?  Mmmmmm?

I have an anecdote.  If you recall, a few years ago I attempted to take a course on Aristotelian and Thomistic Ethics through the Archdiocese of Denver.  That’s the one that the Novus Ordo Kathys asked the instructor (who was great) to throw me out of, because I didn’t respect “their truth” or whatever.  Well, besides myself and the Kathys, there was one man in the class – a guy in his 60s who did nothing but sleep and talk on his cell phone.  I don’t think he ever actually heard a single word the instructor said.  Behavior like that REALLY chaps me.  Anyway, at the last session I attended there was a discussion at the end of the class, and this guy woke up and said the following, at which I was CLIMBING THE WALLS:

“I’m a catechism teacher for the teens over at St. Xxxx’s and have been for years.  The kids ask about reincarnation for the Hindus, and I tell them, “SURE, THAT’S POSSIBLE.  IF THAT IS WHAT THOSE PEOPLE BELIEVE, WHY NOT?  WHO’S TO SAY THAT THERE ISN’T REINCARNATION? WE DON’T KNOW.”

So, lesson one here is: DO NOT SEND YOUR KIDS TO ANY SORT OF CATECHISM CLASSES IN A NOVUS ORDO PARISH.  I’m sorry, but it is just that simple.  They will let ANYONE who volunteers teach, and most of these people, whether we like it or not and whether it is malicious or not, are full-blown heretics if not outright apostates.  Ah, the New Pentecost (TM).  Not QUITE as awesome as the original.

The second lesson is, as we discussed above, people today are so far gone that they can recite the Creed at Mass every Sunday, to wit the parts about “He will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead” and “we look for the resurrection of the dead and the life of the world to come”, and then stand in front of a CATHOLIC CATECHISM CLASS and tell a bunch of kids that, sure, if Hindus believe in reincarnation, who’s to say they aren’t reincarnated? AND THEN BRAG ABOUT IT IN A CATHOLIC ADULT ED CLASS.  There is zero sensation of cognitive dissonance or even tension in holding two utterly, completely contradictory positions.  2+2 equals 4.  But also 762, and aren’t I just one of the cool kids because I don’t actually believe in the concept of “truth”, because I’m tolerant, and frankly, a little self-loathing, too.  The mind simply reels.

Let’s focus in on the so-called Christian denominations now.  Do we honestly believe that there are multiple “heavens”?  Do we honestly believe that there is a Presbyterian heaven, and a Methodist heaven, and a Baptist heaven?  Do we honestly believe that there is a heaven where sodomy, for example, is NOT a sin, where all of the people who believe that sodomy is great will get to go?  Is there a heaven where contraception is not a sin – because ALL of the protesting sects today deny the sinfulness of contraception?  Again, let’s get our logic groove rolling again.  How can the Triune Godhead hold contradictory positions as both being true?  Either sodomy is a sin or it isn’t.  Either the Eucharist is the Body, Blood, Soul and Divinity of Christ physically, substantially present, or it isn’t.  Either the Holy Sacrifice of the Mass is the eternal liturgy of heaven, or it isn’t.  A house divided cannot stand.  If God holds contradictory positions as both “true”, then there is no truth, and thus there is no God.  THIS is the inevitable logical consequence of the Protestant revolt – atheism.

Now this is the part that was so compelling for me in my conversion process.  What of people who cannot, through no fault of their own, either know about or enter the Church?  Can these people be saved?  The answer is: yes.  It is possible.  Let’s take all of the people, for example, who lived their lives on the North American continent in the 1450 years between the establishment of the Church by Christ in the Upper Room in ARSH 33, and the landing of Columbus in North America in ARSH 1492.  How could a man born on the Great Plains in the 5th century, living his entire life 1000 years before any Christian steps foot on the same continent, making it a physical impossibility that he could have known of Christ, much less His Church, much less received baptism in the name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost, be saved?  How could such a man, and billions of others like him over the centuries, possibly be not only saved, but saved IN THE CHURCH, outside of which there is no salvation according to the axiom?  The answer is: The Natural Law.  Christ judged the 5th century Plains Indian according to the Natural Law, which is indelibly inscribed on the heart of every human being by God.  Is it more difficult for those outside The Church?  Of course.  That is why the Church is a Gift from God, and the most obvious manifestation of His love for us, even above and beyond nature and the stars.

And that 5th century Plains Indian, if he lived his life in accord with the Natural Law, coupled with genuine invincible ignorance (due to physical location), made it through his Particular Judgment before Our Lord, is now far, far, far more Catholic than any of us.  He knows the Mass better than the greatest liturgist alive today, because he is right there at the Altar, worshiping God in the perpetual sacrifice and immolation of the Lamb.  He isn’t in some separate animist-pagan heaven for red skinned Injuns (HAD to throw that in).  He is in the one and only heaven that there is, which is indwelling in the only God there is, which is His Mystical Body and Bride, Church Triumphant, which is most certainly CATHOLIC, because what the word “catholic” means is “universal” or, perhaps more accurately, “on the whole”.

And so it follows from this that Our Good God has not created one single human being “damned”.  Every one of us – and scientists today speculate that there have been roughly 110 billion human beings ever – and every person who ever will be, has been knit together, atom by atom, cell by cell, personally by God who provided and provides a means and path and grace sufficient for every one of us to make it to heaven.  Including the eighth consecutive child delivered by c-section.  Many, many did not and will not make it, but that is our own fault.

Now, isn’t that satisfying?  Doesn’t it make sense?  Doesn’t it just drip with integrity and logical coherence?  AND LOVE?

The big obstacle for post-Christian culture is to shake the pathological need to deny that there is, in fact, ONE TRUTH, and thus ONE CHURCH, and thus ONE TRUE RELIGION, as the world, ruled as it is by satan and his minions, calls us “intolerant”, “rigid”, “fundamentalist”, “haters”, “Nazis” and “Taliban”.

I BELIEVE that the Catholic Church is the ONE, TRUE CHURCH of Christ, instituted by Him in the Upper Room, and is now and always will be His Body and His Bride.  There is only ONE Church.  There is only ONE True Religion.  There is only one heaven, and there is only one God, who is the One and Only Judge of every human being.

Which is why I will scream from the rooftops without the least hesitation or shame:

EXTRA ECCLESIAM NULLA SALUS!

OUTSIDE OF THE CHURCH THERE IS NO SALVATION!

Because I actually believe it.

This entry was posted in Uncategorized on February 6, ARSH 2015.

The Schism of Our Time

Futility Defined!

The Supreme Court of the United States has agreed to hear a case on the constitutionality of gay marriages.   This linked article foresees the strong likelihood of a ruling from them which would uniformly require every state to legally recognize and allow gay marriage.  This ruling is expected in late June of 2015.

For the Supreme Court to attempt to decide such an issue, to assume to themselves such authority is analogous to hearing a school yard bully declaring himself to be "king of the world!"  He can certainly make that claim and may be able to enforce it within the confines of the school yard, however, once he ranges farther afield he will run into severe realities as to who truly holds lawful authority.  In the case of lawful marriage it is the Church, as directed by Jesus, who defines marriage, and there is not one whit the Supreme Court, any part of the Federal Government, the state governments, or anyone else can do about it.  The only thing that governments can lawfully do on this issue is write and enforce laws that are in harmony with the Church's directives on marriage.  The laws must recognize that a Church sanctioned marriage is between one man and one woman for life.  End of argument.  In fact, it is mute when our state courts grant bills of divorce.  They actually have no authority to make a marriage go away.  All a civil divorce accomplishes is to direct how property is to be separated and/or how custody of minor children will be managed and other such issues for two separated, yet still married, spouses.  Those spouses cannot licitly marry anyone else, not as long as they both live.

Assuming that the judges rule in favor of the gay argument, we can certainly expect every state legislature to cave to the ruling and amend their laws as such.  Such an outcome would make my paragraph above appear erroneous.  However, each word would remain absolutely true.  You must remember, the United States and her territories is the Supreme Court's "school yard."  They can make it stick here, temporarily, but time and death will reveal the Truth.  What is essential is you cannot let their pronouncement scandalize you.  You must not believe it!  In spite of their apparent authority, they are WRONG!;  DEAD WRONG! and to believe them is to let them lead you to perdition.  They were wrong when they declared divorces, they were wrong when they declared abortion and they were wrong when they supported contraception payouts.  These nine misguided fools are truly the blind leading the blind and all are falling into the pit.

I have written before in this blog on the true hierarchy of authority; briefly, here it is again.  God is the source of all authority.  Jesus was given that total authority after His resurrection.  He passed some of that authority to His Church.  The authority He gave to His Church was to baptize and teach "all nations" of His commandments.  He gave them the authority to bind and loose sins as each penitent warranted based on his contrition and submission to Christ's authority.  The reason for all of this is to help us, through the essential saving grace of God, to attain heaven.  The Church passes through to the people some of her authority in recognition of each human's God given dignity.  Thus, we are free to live as we would, without interference from the Church, as long as we do not violate any of Christ's commandments.  This allows us to form governments.  No one can assume any authority which has not been passed to them from above, nor can anyone pass through authority they themselves do not have.  This is why divorce is illicit.   State governments were formed by people, who had not the ability to divorce, thus could not give such authority to the state when they formed it.  The several states formed the Federal Government and certainly had not this authority to rule on marriages to pass through to it.

Regardless of how the court rules in this case, follow Christ.  Live as He would have you live.  It is truly the only way to attain permanent happiness.