However, there is important good news for couples who do marry: "Men and women who are currently married and were raised by an intact family enjoy an annual `family premium' in their household income that exceeds that of their unmarried peers raised in non-intact families by at least $42,000," said the report written by W. Bradford Wilcox and Robert Lerman.

To put that more simply: couples who marry will earn $42,000 more than those who cohabit or remain single.

Gushee says the journey to his current position has been a long and winding one. During the first two decades of his academic career, he maintained a traditional view of sexuality and "hardly knew a soul who was not heterosexual." As he worked on issues such as torture and climate change, his attention was drawn to other issues -- slavery, segregation, defamation of Jews, subjugating women -- for which Christians once cited Scripture for their entrenched positions.

That subpoena is nothing less than ruthless thuggery, exercised by an elected public servant and her city attorney. And that thuggery has been done in the name of the people of Houston, Texas.

Notably absent is any success in enacting the "Columbia model" in the southern third of the state. The Missouri Ozarks is renowned for its deep religiosity, so enacting such an ordinance there would be a major, perhaps decisive, step in enacting such legislation state wide. After all, if this model can pass in the "Queen City" of the Ozarks, why should the Missouri General Assembly have concerns about passing it state wide?