Dear Auntie Kate:

Dear Gentle Reader,

Sadly, like all human beings, your Aunt Kate has no pipeline to the thoughts and decisions of the Almighty.

I am no biblical scholar, and really won't get drawn into a point by point discussion of this verse versus that teaching.

What do you think? We won't decide the issue, He will. In the meantime, I know many God fearing, devoted folk who believe that God has lead them to marry their cousins.
 

Postscript:

Dear Reader,

The Following Scriptures should be evidence that God is not opposed to cousin marriages. These are taken from the Old Testament, the New International Version.

Some would argue that Old Testament laws are no longer valid. In fact, many Old Testament laws were changed due to the redeeming blood of Jesus Christ. However, those laws that did change were regarding unclean food and sacrifices. In all such cases, the changes were specifically addressed in the New Testament.

The New Testament does not describe "sexual immorality" at all, other than to refer you back to the Old Testament.

Genesis 24:
 v48.  and I bowed down and worshiped the LORD. I praised the LORD, the God of my master Abraham, who had led me on the right road to get the granddaughter of my master's brother for his son.
 v 49.  Now if you will show kindness and faithfulness to my master, tell me; and if not, tell me, so I may know which way to turn."
 v50.  Laban and Bethuel answered, "This is from the LORD; we can say nothing to you one way or the other.
 v51.  Here is Rebekah; take her and go, and let her become the wife of your master's son, as the LORD has directed."

Genesis 28:
 v1.  So Isaac called for Jacob and blessed  him and commanded him: "Do not marry a Canaanite woman.
 v2.  Go at once to Paddan Aram,  to the house of your mother's father Bethuel. Take a wife for yourself there, from among the daughters of Laban, your mother's brother.
 v3.  May God Almighty  bless you and make you fruitful and increase your numbers until you become a community of peoples.

Please note here that Jacob was the son of Isaac; He was the son of first cousins! If you continue to read the story of Jacob, you will find that he married both Rachel and Leah, the daughters of his uncle. He had many, many children, which were double-first cousins (I believe that is correct), and all his children were born healthy.

Numbers 36:
 v6.  This is what the LORD commands for Zelophehad's daughters: They may marry anyone they please as long as they marry within the tribal clan of their father.
 v7.  No inheritance in Israel is to pass from tribe to tribe, for every Israelite shall keep the tribal land inherited from his forefathers.
 v8.  Every daughter who inherits land in any Israelite tribe must marry someone in her father's tribal clan, so that every Israelite will possess the inheritance of his fathers.
 v9.  No inheritance may pass from tribe to tribe, for each Israelite tribe is to keep the land it inherits."
 v10.  So Zelophehad's daughters did as the LORD commanded Moses.
 v11.  Zelophehad's daughters--Mahlah, Tirzah, Hoglah, Milcah and Noah--married their cousins on their father's side.
 v12.  They married within the clans of the descendants of Manasseh son of Joseph, and their inheritance remained in their father's clan and tribe.

I Chronicles 23:
v22.  Eleazar died without having sons: he had only daughters. Their cousins, the sons of Kish, married them.

Now, as for the definition of sexual immorality, you will fine these laws specifically defined in Leviticus chapter 18, verses 6 through 24. God tells us that we are not to have sexual relations with the following:

• any close relative (which obviously did not include cousins, as you've read above)
• your mother
• your father's wife
• your sister, "whether she was born in the same home or elsewhere" (v.9)
• your grandchild
• the daughter of your father's wife (step-sister)
• your father's sister (aunt) "as she is your father's close relative"
• your mother's sister (aunt) "as she is your sister's close relative"
• your father's brother's wife (aunt)
• your son's wife
• your brother's wife
• with both a woman and her daughter
• your wife's sister as a rival wife (to spite your first wife)
• during "uncleanness of her monthly period"
• with your neighbor's wife
• with a member of the same sex; the Bible says "that is detestable"
• with an animal; the Bible refers to this as "a perversion"