A call to discriminate, in the name of the Lord?

I opened the newspaper and learned something new this morning.

If I want God's blessing when (if?) I reach the hereafter, then I've got to spend some serious time sticking it to the unworthy.

Goodness. Where have I been? I'm a lifelong Christian -- a former Sunday school teacher, no less. Yet somehow I missed this essential piece of what it apparently is – or has become – to be a Christian.

Turns out it's my Christian obligation to discriminate against countless numbers of my fellow Arizonans if I want to reach the promised land.

This, according to a Phoenix letter writer who laid it all out, Biblicly speaking, in the wake of last week's Supreme Court ruling legalizing same-sex marriage.

Cue Alan:

"Re: "Show me the scripture and verse that says you can discriminate," Monday letters.

"This immediately came to mind: II Corinthians 6:14 -17. "Do not be unequally yoked together with unbelievers. For what fellowship has righteousness with lawlessness? And what communion has light with darkness? And what accord has Christ with Belial? Or what part has a believer with an unbeliever? ...

"Therefore, come out from among them and be separate says the Lord. Do not touch what is unclean, and I will receive you. ... I will be a Father to you, And you shall be my sons and daughters, says the Lord Almighty."

"It sounds pretty clear to me that Christians should discriminate if they want God's blessing. I know that we'll be hated for it, but it's certainly worth it in the long run."

Sing it, mister.

It is, it seems, a good and noble thing not only to walk in the name of the Lord but to serve as his judges here on Earth.

So, I pulled out my King James Bible this morning – specifically, 1 Corinthians -- to bone up on who it is that I need to target for a little righteous discrimination. Turns out there's a vast array of sinners we Christians should be shunning.

There are the fornicators, the idolaters and the adulterers. There's the "effeminate," which I took to mean homosexuals, and the "abusers of themselves with mankind," whoever they are. There's the thieves, the greedy, the drunks, the swindlers and the verbally abusive. And, oh yeah, the unbelievers.

Add in people who use birth control (if you're Catholic), people who are divorced and those who don't keep the Sabbath and various other unworthy — and I've got a fair amount of discriminating to catch up on.

Or I can simply go with that whole love-thy-neighbor-as-thyself commandment.

Seems a lot simpler – and less stressful.

I understand that many people are upset with the idea that the government is striving to offer equal protection to all under our laws (thus, legalizing same-sex marriage). I respect that people are entitled to conduct their own lives in accordance with their own religious beliefs.

But a call for Christians to discriminate? That seems most unChristian to me.

Of course, not all (or even any) Christians are perfect and I'm probably more imperfect than most, a fact which likely lands me on that vastly expansive list of those who should be discriminated against.)

But if I could talk with this morning's letter writer I'd ask him: If we're going to throw the first stone and embark up the holier-than-thou route to heaven, where will it end?

And who will be left that we can talk to?