Eclectic quotations accumulating in Hell's Kitchen, NY, USA.

20040315

"There is something on the Internet that made me both laugh and cry and shake my head. It seems there's an online Presidential Prayer Team urging us to pray for George W. Bush as he governs, and as he seeks, among other things, the wisdom to legally codify the definition of marriage. This is a sincere group. But another Internet site, which surely means to be sarcastic, offers the following: They say if the president has his way - to wit, that marriage in the U.S. shall consist of a union between one man and one woman - he will have to consider that biblically it shall also consist of a union between one man and one or more women. (Genesis 29:17-28; II Samuel 3:2-5)... Also, marriage shall not impede a man's right to take concubines in addition to his wife or wives. (II Samuel 5:13;II Chronicles 11:21)... Marriage shall be valid only if the wife is a virgin. If she is not, she shall be executed by stoning. (Deuteronomy 22:13021)... Marriage of a believer and a non-believer shall be forbidden. (Genesis 24:3, Numbers 25: 1-9, Ezra 9:12; Nehemiah 10:30)... Marriage is for life, no state or federal law shall permit divorce. (Deuteronomy 22: 19; Mark 10:9)... If a married man dies childless, his brother shall marry the widow. If he refuses to marry his brother's wife or deliberately does not give her children, he may pay a fine of one shoe and be otherwise punished in a manner determined by law. (Genesis 38: 6-10; Deuteronomy 25:5-10)... There you have it. It's right there in the Bible, as Mel Gibson says."
-- Liz Smith, in today's New York Post.