Or, as I like to think of it, "Jim Dobson just woke up to discover he was forty years behind the times":

A record 70 percent of Americans believe divorce is morally acceptable, according to Gallup’s 2008 Values and Beliefs survey. That's an 11-point increase from seven years ago.

...

H.B. London, vice president of Church and Clergy at Focus on the Family, said he is discouraged by the demise of the traditional family.

“Divorce violates the condition of the marriage vows, especially for Christians, because we commit to each other and to God until death us do part,” he said. “Marriage is a commitment that God instituted, and it is not up to mankind to determine what constitutes marriage and what doesn't.”

McManus said the Church is not doing its job.

“The Church hardly ever preaches on the issue of divorce or cohabitation or marriage," he said. "It’s God’s first institution, but it’s often the Church’s last institution. The good news is that the Church can turn it around.”

While I wouldn't want to minimize the suffering or disruption of divorce, it's not a moral problem for two people to stop making one another miserable. It's even less a problem to stop making their children miserable or actually unsafe as happens all too often.

Yeah, Jesus "Moses gave you divorce for the hardness of your hearts." It's a blessing and a call to freedom, not a ball and chain.

So, what are the McCains hiding? Cindy McCain was asked about releasing her tax returns, on the Today show, and reiterated that she would never release them -- ever -- even if she becomes First Lady:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7vZi6...

We're All Hacks Atrios is right

It's important to remember that none of us are above the fray, that we all have hackish tendencies to suppress information which doesn't fit our worldview and privilege information that does. We're more likely to excuse behavior from people we like and exaggerate the ills of people we don't like. I try to fight hackish tendencies especially during this intra-Dem battle, but I don't claim to have superhuman Nonhack powers.

For the record, I make no effort to be above the fray nor any pretense of being fair or balanced.  I'm not only a member of the Hack Club for Men, I'm the president.  It's good to know your own filters....

More hackery below.

As we observe the political and spiritual and religious landscape, particularly in the last several months, I have seen some seismic shifts and  movement of tectonic plates in action.  I firmly believe that we are due for some massive change.  What sort of change, to what degree we will have change, and in what package this change will arrive, I know not.

These are certainly intense times.

Wednesday, June 13th was my ninth wedding anniversary.  I can't believe it's been nine years already, and thinking about that disbelief led me into thinking more deeply into marriage in general.  (Note: I wanted to post this on the 13th, but one of my gifts to my wife was to NOT spend the day writing, as I all-too-often do.)

Most Pagans call our version of a wedding a handfasting, and the term is descriptive of how we see the institution.  The symbolic joining of hands, before our friends, our families, the Gods, and (sometimes) the government, is indicative of our making a public commitment to one another "without", one already achieved within.  In this respect, this is like initiation.  And like initiation, it is another rite of passage as we grow and mature into more realized human beings.

More on marriages and culture wars after the jump...