In 19 states and the District of Columbia, gay couples already can wed, with Oregon and Pennsylvania becoming the latest to join the list this week when federal judges struck down their bans and officials decided not to appeal. The Governor of the State of Pennsylvania, Tom Corbett said he would not challenge the state of Pennsylvania and will not be challenging a judge's ruling that a law defining marriage as between a man and a woman is unconstitutional.

In a statement, Corbett said that since a challenge to Judge John Jones' decision "is extremely unlikely to succeed on appeal," he has "decided not to appeal."

Both Jones' decision and Corbett's have garnered immediate and harsh criticism from marriage supporters. The Pennsylvania Catholic Conference said that Jones' ruling "speaks to the confusion and misunderstanding among many today about the fundamental building block of society: the family." The conference, which represents the state's three million Catholics, also said that "Catholic opposition to same-sex marriage is not a statement about the worth of human beings who experience same-sex attraction, but a statement about the nature of marriage itself."

After Corbett's decision, Archbishop Salvatore Cordileone, chairman of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops’ Subcommittee for the Promotion and Defense of Marriage, said that "marriage deserves better, our democracy deserves better, and our children deserve better" than Jones' decision. In the ruling, Jones -- who was appointed by President George W. Bush -- said it was time to take marriage laws and 'discard them into the ash heap of history'."

"This is a reckless and irresponsible statement," said Cordileone, who heads the Archdiocese of San Francisco.

Recently Episcopal bishops in Michigan, California and Upper South Carolina have all come out in favor of same sex marriage making The Episcopal Church the most liberal and revisionist denomination in America over this issue. In making his decision, Bishop Andrew Waldo of Upper South Carolina said this, “In making the case for the blessing of same-sex relationships, I “went head-on” with biblical scriptures that depict homosexuality as a sin against nature; studied the half-century debate within the U.S. church and the Anglican Communion over same-sex relationships; and examined the modern secular movement toward marriage equality and recognition of same-sex marriage. Recognizing that there is deep disagreement about this, I will argue that there is a firm biblical basis from which to shape a common life in which lifelong, monogamous same-sex relationships can receive the blessing of the church.”

On hearing the news of Bishop Daniel’s decision, the former Episcopal Bishop of Springfield, Peter Beckwith, now chaplain at Hillsdale College and Assisting Bishop, Anglican Diocese of the Great Lakes, wrote VOL blasting Bishop Daniel over his statement that what constitutes (Christian) marriage has evolved... and said that “what is now overwhelmingly accepted in the Episcopal Church is only in the minds of fools and the naive. Christian marriage can only be between a man and a women. Anything else is promiscuity, period; and God's judgement is obvious to all except for those fools and the naive!”

In his note to the diocese, Daniel said that for several decades, The Episcopal Church has been faithful in seeking understanding in what God is calling us to in relation to matters of sexuality and marriage. “I have come to believe that marriage is the union of two people to live together in fidelity, love and unity until death parts them whether the partners in the marriage are of the same or different genders. I pray that all married persons become ever more signs to a broken world of the unity God intends for all people and that they become channels of God's love into the lives of those around them.”

It should be noted here that the very public marriage of the former Bishop of New Hampshire Gene Robinson to his gay partner, recently fell apart in less than 10 years.

Bishop Daniel said that while he gives his permission to the Priests of this Diocese to marry persons of the same gender, no priest is required to do so.

“Thankfully, The Episcopal Church is part of a broad catholic and reformed Christian tradition that allows for unity even in the midst of disagreement. Not all members of this Church will agree with this decision. In The Episcopal Church, there is room for all people of good conscience and good will toward their neighbor to gather as one around God's altar.”

This is factually not correct. Less than a handful of Episcopal bishops will not allow the blessing of same sex marriages, those who reject this and other innovations have left the Episcopal Church for the Anglican Church in North America, the Ordinariate and Orthodox jurisdictions. Furthermore “catholic and reformed Christian traditions” have not agreed with gay marriage, quite the opposite. The Roman Catholic Church, the Reformed Churches the Orthodox churches of the East and West have fundamentally repudiated not only actively homosexual priests but gay marriage as well.

Brian S. Brown, President of the National Organization for Marriage, said, “Marriage deserves a vigorous defense. The truth of marriage has not changed – not since it was created by God and certainly not since 1996 when Pennsylvania enacted its DOMA. Marriage is a profound and unique public good that provides the best assurance that children borne of the union of man and woman will have the best opportunity of being raised by both a mother and a father.”

South Carolina priest theologian Ladson F. Mills III opined, “Ideologues have replaced theologians in The Episcopal Church. This is the same debate C. S. Lewis J.R.R. Tolkien had in the 40's concerning the essence of Christian Matrimony (it was essentially over re-marriage) with Lewis being the more liberal of the two. He believed that the culture can do with marriage whatever it may decide but Christians could not. Tolkien believed that all marriage (religious or civil) must be male and female and only once.”

The decision by Bishop Daniel and other Episcopal bishops deeply violates the ontology of Christian marriage written into the Doctrine of Creation. God’s decision to create “of one flesh” male and female cannot arbitrarily be changed by a handful of postmodern Episcopal bishops bent on deconstructing marriage to suit a handful of men and women who demand it because of aggressive cultural (read sexual) demands.

The Episcopal Church is paying a terrible price for capitulating to the culture: thousands of departing parishioners, closing churches, fleeing priests and orthodox bishops no longer able, in good conscience to stay in The Episcopal Church.

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