If you ever saw any of the countless design programs on HGTV where a room or other portion of someone’s house is redecorated you know that when the homeowner is ushered back in to see the fabulous results he or she invariably says, “Oh my God.”  Sometimes as they eyeball the various aspects or features of their “new” space they repeat the phrase.  Over and over and over again.  “Oh my God!  Oh my God!”  I don’t know whether this is a learned behavior of the design program aficionados, whether it is scripted, or whether this is a natural reaction.

I do know that it’s a good thing these programs aren’t taped in Yemen.

In that country un-elected, un-appointed, un-paid “morals police” roam the highways and by-ways looking for people who violate religious rules and practices.  Imagine if they overheard someone taking God’s name in vain.

Apparently, these guys – yes, they are men, of course – all wear beards, and they are ready, willing, and extremely anxious to swoop down on violators.  One publicized case involved a group of university students, male and female, that walked out of class together into the light of day.  A bearded “street committee” broke up this immoral gang of miscreants shouting, “Is this a lover’s lane?”  When by-standers reacted against the beard boys, they were met with, “Do you want us to wait until they start having sex in the street?”

Some “religious leaders” are trying to get the Yemen government to appoint a sanctioned virtue and vice force that would, at the very least, have the power to arrest those who don’t toe the line of official religious interpretation.

Saudi Arabia already has this in place.

Sometimes one has the impression there are folks in our country who might like to see the same approach taken.  And, while they may not all wear beards, there are plenty of would-be self-appointed “virtue and vice” enforcers.  In some places and times they wore bed sheets and burned crosses.  Some hold forth on talk radio.  Some advocate for constitutional amendments.  Some are named Fred Phelps.

Their hatred and how they justify it on a “Christian” or “faith” or “family values” basis mystifies me.

But, I suppose, in a free society where people can wear bathing suits that look like the national flag, and in which bumper stickers containing insults, crudity, and profanity are displayed, and pick-up trucks have testicle-shaped ornaments dangling underneath, they have a right.

Just don’t do something un-Christian, or there will be hell to pay.