i love my missouri home-town congressman!

Angry frustration was palpable when The Star interviewed [Congressman Emanuel] Cleaver recently on Capitol Hill to get a unique perspective on the issue from Congress’ only practicing minister. He opened a Bible several times to show passages that he thought showed the absurdity of the effort. At one point he slapped the big book against his thigh in exasperation, muttering, “This place. … I don’t know.

“This is shamefully political and sinfully divisive,” said Cleaver, the senior pastor of St. James United Methodist Church in Kansas City. “It’s bad theology because there is nothing Biblical about creating divisions between people.”

“Marriage is a spiritual issue. That’s not for the Congress to dictate, no more than it’s appropriate for Congress to dictate how much bread should be used in Communion. Communion is a sacrament. Marriage is a sacrament. Why not just put all the sacraments in the Constitution?”

“But the institution of marriage is holy and sacred,” Cleaver said. “And this body [Congress] is not one that ought to come within 100 miles of sacredness and holiness.”