As a progressive in many facets of my life, I enjoy exploring ideas and concepts. Especially when those ideas and concepts blow the doors off "conventional wisdom". Which John Boswell does rather nicely with his well-researched and written tome "Same-Sex Unions in Pre-Modern Europe."Conservative and ultra-conservative Christians...and the Catholic Church are, among other things, really good at revising history to match what "they" want things to be. Hence, we are faced with the strict literalistic folks who declare that the Holy Writ--which is really more of a library is THE INFALLIBLE WORD OF GOD and CANNOT be violated. AND don't you dare let them thar queers an' dykes go be marryin' and doin' stuff.Yah, right...go stuff in yer ear.Boswell first deliniates and then traces the various unions between men and women from Rome and other population centers forward. And he proves, to my mind and,quite frankly, beyond a reasonable doubt, that the Catholic Church and before them, the early Christians, sanctified a number of different unions...same sex unions as well as heterogeneous sex marriages. He also points out, along the way, that child molestation was not acceptable, but if one was rich enough...does that sound familiar?Boswell's book did stir a fair amount of consternation, to be sure. The question to ask is whose ox got gored. The list is instructive. The Catholic Church, Conservative Christians. Apologists. Homophobes Folks who believe that LBGTQ is "sin" or "satanistic". Also (and this sheer speculation on my part) the RNC, Rush Limbaugh, the Koch Brothers, The Heritage Institute,the Westboro Baptist Church Mrs. Betty Bowers, America's Best Christian, Mitt Romney (during one of his flipflops and by non-secret ballot, all the employees of Hobby Lobby.Returning to a more serious vein...this is a must-read book for people who have deep questions about the history of sacramentalized same-gender unions. It is for the people who have a strong belief that a loving union should be recognized both civilly and religiously and, as above, have questions about the history of the "Church's" position. And finally, it is for anyone who is tired of the loud-mouthed ideologues who pander their hate-speech...and want ammunition to help reasonable people shut the narrow-minded bastards up.And if you are one of those narrow-minded bastards and are offended by this review...grow up. The Carpenter was about love and inclusiveness. When did you get to say otherwise...