The Spiral of Amnesia

Today in the news:

• Netflix  creates super-PAC to support SOPA laws
• The Internet Association just formed by Google, Amazon, and Facebook to lobby Congress for a free Internet
• President Obama threatens the Senate with a Cybersecurity executive order
• Predator drones start overflight in North Dakota
• Janet Napolitano claims drones will improve public safety
• Drones being sought by DHS, police, and television stations for public observation
• TrapWire secret affiliations revealed
• Minnesota about to become 30th state to pass Constitutional marriage amendment

And so forth. Doesn't anyone see a trend here? A trend that has escalated like the dollar devaluation against gold in the last half century? One group of people after another are attempting to impose control over another. The divisiveness taking hold of this country threatens to rip the foundation of liberty in our society to shreds.

 Take the issue of marriage. Pastors are on opposing sides of this issue. Archbishop Nienstedt asserts no harm is intended by passage of the amendment defining marriage. Apparently the archbishop did not learn anything in his Catholic education. Something about the road to hell...?

This last month I have been reading in the three volume set, A History of Matrimonial Institutions by Dr George Elliot Howard, published in 1904. Dr. Howard recounts in volume one the history of various marital arrangements around the world as reported by several researchers of varying credibility back to pre-Roman Empire times. Volume two covers the changes that took place in England and America beginning just prior to the Colonial era. Volume three completes a detailed account of marriage and divorce proceedings in the United States up to the date of publication. I started reading this set because I wanted to understand what truly is "traditional marriage" that the religious force in our nation has based their crusade against homosexuals upon.

So far what I discovered is, there isn't one. There are hundreds, if not thousands. Virtually every kind of marital arrangement conceivable to man has been practiced on this planet. And this includes divorce. Before I finished volume one the message came on very strong and clear: the Catholic Church in its attempt to regulate and "sanctify" marriage created a terrible morass of religious and civil legislation that follows us today. Where once marriage was a private contract between husband and wife, and consummated by the family of the bride (usually her father), it is now completely out of private hands and dominated by the State at every level. And what is pushing this domination? Religion. Never mind the morass of problems created by St. Augustine, or Luther, or King James, or the Stuarts of England as they produced by their meddling some of the worst abuses of marriage and divorce the world has ever seen. Religious piety is still in there slugging away in the Congress and the Courts, striving to impose moral rectitude in the name of God.

Before the Roman Empire, marriage had nothing to do with religion or God, or morality. It was a bond between two people, merging their resources and talents in creating another family, which had always been the basis upon which governmental power was derived. Marriage was largely considered a private act, sanctioned by the community not legally, but festively. In some instances there were some moral taboos or tribal edicts with regard to the separation of a married couple. But these almost always were centered around the disposition of property, the disposition of underage children, and debasing of the marriage relation where more than one spouse or infidelity was concerned. Marriage and divorce was largely a voluntary contract made and broken by those who entered into it, and no one had much control of it.

Since the Catholic Church invaded the Teutonic Empire problems with marriage and divorce have escalated to the unmanageable levels we have today. One does not need to investigate Christian history very far to discover it is composed of some of the worst hypocrites the world has produced. If one considers Jesus' words concerning marriage it is clear it belongs to this world alone. (Mark 12) It is well known among scholars of ancient religious texts that Paul was considered an heretic by the leaders of the Church in Jerusalem. This is why he was sent away from Jerusalem. He attempted to teach a different code of conduct than what had been given to Peter and James. The Christianity we have today is a derivative of the self-persecuting Saul of Tarsus, who continued going about dictating to all who would give ear, what was moral, and what was the mind of Jesus, even though he never sought tutelage at Jesus' feet as did His fervent disciples. It is in Paul's disquisitions we see the departure from the teachings of Jesus on the matter of marriage. And it is aberrations of the Church at the peak of the Roman Empire we see building upon the doctrines of Paul, the ex-persecutor. But Christians today do not perceive any hypocrisy in what they are attempting to impose on their fellow Americans against the backdrop of an ancient Hebrew custom. They insist the entire world must conform to their modern interpretation of this ancient and little nation's marriage customs!

It is little consolation to be reminded Thomas Jefferson foresaw this trend. Few people today know anything about what Jefferson wrote or his concerns for the survival of what they so laboriously sought to create. Listen to America's real "prophet":

 "It is error alone which needs the support of government. Truth can stand by itself ....  The way to silence religious disputes, is to take no notice of them. Let us too give this experiment fair play, and get rid, while we may, of those tyrannical laws. It is true, we are yet secured against them by the spirit of the times. I doubt whether the people of this country would suffer an execution of heresy, or three years' imprisonment for not comprehending the mysteries of the Trinity. But is that spirit of the people an infallible, a permanent reliance? Is it government? Besides, the spirit of the times may alter, will alter. Our rulers will become corrupt, our people careless ....  From the conclusion of this war we shall be going down hill. It will not then be necessary to resort every moment to the people for support. They will be forgotten, therefore, and their rights disregarded. They will forget themselves, but in the sole faculty of making money, and will never think of uniting to effect a due respect for their rights."
 Thomas Jefferson, "Notes on the State of Virginia" (1781)
 
The danger in this constitutional amendment is not so much the damage done to marriage traditions. It is the further widening of the door of State intervention. Intervention that will ultimately and inevitably backfire upon the religious institutions of this country, just as it did upon our ancestors of Western Europe over 400 hundred years ago. Friends and countrymen, you haven't seen anything yet with regard to the demise of the family and the solidarity of children with parents. The State already has total and unequivocal control over our children (or haven't you been in juvenile court lately?), and they will soon with this foolish legislation fueled by well-meaning but spiritually impotent priests find the State dictating who may marry whom, when, the duration, and the obligations. Or did you not pay attention to Michael Straczynski's portrayal of the Telepath Corps in Babylon 5: They are mother. They are father.

This is where we are headed. We are the ones who have created Orwell's 1984 society. The Fahrenheit 451 government. The tyranny of a One World Order. It's what you want, because you haven't learned the first lesson of a patriot of Jeffersonian government:

Mind Your Own Business and leave your neighbor's practices and beliefs alone.

SethSmee