Reverend Askins, I agree with your reaffirmation of God's view of the sanctity of marriage, and in the relationship between men and women in a monogamous covenant. It seems strange that we must now defend this covenant, even as Jesus Himself taught and commanded we follow it. Many voices in our fallen land, even inside the church itself, prefer to pick and choose what commands of the Lord they will follow, and which they feel free to disregard. We have a pluralistic society which has effectively poisoned the church through philosophy, secular humanism, and relativism, and by design these ideologies are antithetical to Biblical truth. As I am 77 years old, I remember well the days before same sex marriage, transgenderism, and homosexuality were affirmed by this society, but as the culture became more debased, the floodgates opened wide. To add insult to injury, to defy God and His word more profoundly, many churches and denominations abandoned all Biblical prohibitions which did not conform to "woke" ideas. Thinking they are enlightened by today's post modernist thinking, they now attack Biblical Christians in consort with the perverse culture. We need not fear the persecution of Biblical Christians from a purely outside or existential threat by the government, since heresy from within the Christian church now works in tandem with them to deconstruct the influence of the faith. The wolves are already within the wire, and if you observe the church today, some denominations teach seminarians the buzz words they will need in the new order, words like "white privilege," "systemic racism," "LGBT affirming," and "Social Justice." I have observed several churches in the New England area flying "BLM" flags and rainbow flags showing how much they support LGBT rights. And where does the Gospel fit into these churches? How will they now redefine "sin?" I pray that the LCMS will stand with the remnant of faithful churches in America, on marriage, on the inerrancy of scripture, on sin. And even if our churches grow smaller, our seminarian applicants fewer, standing up in the gap is far better than seeking popularity and false respect in a nation that is dying spiritually, and will likely soon face God's judgment. Soli Deo Gloria.