When Abraham Lincoln used the phrase, “A house divided against itself cannot stand,” he was paraphrasing Jesus in Matthew 12:25.

It is a timeless truth. So Bill and Gloria Baine have preserved their 48-year marriage by keeping their allegiance to Alabama and Auburn mostly to themselves.

But Iron Bowl loyalties test the mettle of even the strongest relationships.

“When Alabama wins, Billy doesn’t say anything to me, and when Auburn wins, I don’t say anything to him because we know it might be reversed next year,” Gloria said.

But just to be on the safe side, Bill watches the Iron Bowl on the big-screen living room TV, while Gloria watches the game in the den.

The couple’s “mixed marriage” is well known in their family. Their daughter found a “Divided House” porch flag at Crawford’s to warn visitors of the rivalry within the Baine home. That there is an obvious market for such items shows this affliction must be common in the state.

“My husband has always been for Alabama,” Gloria said. “He didn’t go there and none of his family went there, but they were all for Alabama, so he was just automatically for Alabama. But my father, brother, nephew, aunts and uncles all graduated from Auburn, so I’ve always been an Auburn fan.”

Bill contends any right-thinking person would naturally be for The Tide. “You don’t have to have gone to Alabama to be for Alabama,” he says. “I’ve been for Alabama since way back when Harry Gilmer played for them.”

Bill said his Alabama loyalties were forged by the school’s hospitalities when in 1954 as a member of the Pisgah basketball team he traveled to Tuscaloosa to play in state tournaments in the university’s Foster Auditorium.

“They assigned a football player to each of the teams to show us around campus,” he said.

But alas, the couple could not shield their four children from the conflict. Of their four grown children, two are for Alabama — Sandra Whitfield and David Baine — one for Auburn — Barbara Parnell —and one for Tennessee — Debbie Tuck.

“We don’t know what happened to Debbie, her being for Tennessee,” Bill said.

“I know what happened to her,” Gloria said. “She married Chuck Tuck, and he spent some time in Memphis when he was a child. I guess that’s why he grew up being for Tennessee.”

At least the Tucks don’t have a divided house.