Peter Jensen, and how gay marriage can lead you to playing the board game Polygamy ...

(Above: indeed, surely it's ruining everything, including the capacity for rational thought).

While the pond could never hope to be an organ of record for the outpourings of the nepotic Jensenists - we'll leave that to the Sydney Anglican website, and the church's newspaper Southern Cross, both sturdy organs - it's pleasing to see the splash that's still produced when a Jensen thought bubble bellyflops into the public eye.

This time it's Same-sex marriage will lead to polygamy, says Jensen, given a run a few days ago by Fairfax.

Sadly the thoughts of Dr. Jensen aren't available online. If you head off here, you'll understand why. Oh heck why bother with a click through:

In a major shake-up of Sydney Diocese's web presence caused by the financial crisis, Southern Cross will no longer be made available online ...

Oh dear. So that's what happens when Christians play the stock exchange, while simultaneously denouncing crass materialism. Do go on:

Southern Cross is a free monthly newspaper produced by Anglican Media Sydney. You will find this paper at your local Anglican church or get it sent directly to your home using our subscription service.

Yep, it's a free monthly newspaper that will cost you a mere A$44 a year, including postage, handling and GST. On the other hand, you could subscribe to The New Yorker's digital edition for a humble US$39-95. Now there's a tough choice for urban elitists unwilling to hoof it down to their local Anglican establishment for a chance to be up to date with the thoughts of Jensen ...

Meanwhile, back to the inflammatory Jensen thought bubble:

''This claim for a right to be married could open the way for other forms, such as polygamous marriages or perhaps even marriage between immediate family members,'' he said.

Yep, let those gays get hitched, and heck there'll be an explosion of polygamy and incestuous hook ups.

Oh dear. Is it wrong to point out that in fact the Bible and Christianity have led directly to polygamous marriages? Of course there are various contractual requirements:

If he take him another wife, her food, her raiment and her duty of marriage, shall he not diminish (Exodus 21:1))

David was a bit of a goer, with the full approval of the lord, and I think he managed to get up to six wives and a good range of concubines:

After he left Hebron, David took more concubines and wives in Jerusalem, and more sons and daughters were born to him. These are the names of the children born to him there: Shammua, Shobab, Nathan, Solomon, Ibhar, Elishua, Nepheg, Japhia, Elishama, Eliada and Eliphelet. (2 Samuel 5)

But no one could top Solomon, and as you might expect, being surrounded by women could only lead to tears:

King Solomon, however, loved many foreign women besides Pharaoh’s daughter—Moabites, Ammonites, Edomites, Sidonians and Hittites. They were from nations about which the Lord had told the Israelites, “You must not intermarry with them, because they will surely turn your hearts after their gods.” Nevertheless, Solomon held fast to them in love. He had seven hundred wives of royal birth and three hundred concubines, and his wives led him astray. (1 Kings 11)

Oh the wicked hussies, but the Lord wasn't upset with Solomon so much for his polygamy as for his turning away from the head dude to worship false dudes. If only he'd fallen for proper dude-worshipping locally based wives ...

And so on and so forth.

Why you could even argue that Christianity led to Joseph Smith Jr and his polygamous ways, a tradition you can still see being observed in certain parts of the United States.

Of course there's not much joy in Christian social structures for women anxious to give polyandry a go, but then Christians have always made sure the patriarchal fix is in.

There's plenty more in the Jensen piece to enjoy, and lordy did it stir up a response in the letters section, with the Reverend Vincent Zankin of Rivett, ACT offering up Jensen's same-sex rant offensive and absurd.

Good on you Rev, a regular newspaper letter writer, irritator of Miranda the Devine and Tim Blair, and according to the Blairites, at some time a chaplain at an RAAF base (though there doesn't seem to be much evidence for that outside the fevered imaginings and googlings of the Blairites).

Another reader, the sage Ron Kerr offered up the insight that masturbation will as surely lead to blindness - though another correspondent contended it caused hairy palms - while others took a view on the archbishop's 'irrational minority-view comments', and a few struck below the belt by pointing out how the priesthood and traditional marriage seems to lead to child abuse ...

And it wouldn't be a decent set of letters if someone didn't mention how same sex marriage is the likely cause of global warming ...

Oops, I'm starting to sound like a Murdoch hack, quoting the letters and comments to be found on the web.

Oh the shame.

I blame Archbishop Jensen of course.

If he hadn't indulged in his usual nonsensical speechifying, none of this mental masturbation would have occurred ...

(Below: and of course it hasn't taken long for the Photoshop wags to get to work).