ALL of us have "a number of things" that we "would be ashamed of should they come to light." Even St. Paul called himself the chief of sinners, and I am certainly no better than St. Paul. But, that is beside the point.

If we roll out and take a long look at the big picture, the issue here is whether a Christian church can continue to hold to its doctrine in an age when doctrines repugnant to the Christian Tradition are being enshrined into law an imposed on them. The corollary issue is whether adherents to that religion can gather together with a common commitment to those doctrines in the midst of an increasingly hostile society.

Homosexual "marriage" may be statutory law, but it has never been and can never be canon law. Since Christians consider their true citizenship to be in heaven, for us the laws of God trump the laws of Caesar. The benefit of that fact to society is that the laws of God, as understood by the Christian Church from the Holy Scriptures and Tradition, are good.