As is well-known, sex,
marriage, children, and familial relationships are the most universal cultural classifications
in history. Rapid and radical changes in these areas, as we seem to be experiencing
at present affect us all. Western culture is built on thousands
of years of understanding marriage, sex, and family life in traditional ways. To assume that
we can redefine these understandings without radically affecting the culture is naive.
Codification of same-sex marriage
is tantamount to codified endorsement of homosexuality. From the standpoint of
the Catholic Church this affirms in their disorder people suffering from
same-sex attraction, eliminating the stigmas that might have stymied the more
introspective souls from fully giving themselves over to it. Indeed, thinking
on the low percentages of homosexual couples actually marrying where “same-sex
marriage” has been legalized, and the derision for traditional marriage witnessed in the
writings of homosexual activists and academics, perhaps this endorsement may be seen
to be the main end of backing for such “marriage.”
In Church teaching, people with
same-sex attraction suffer from an intrinsically disordered orientation and
stand in need of healing. When by power of law the state affirms the disorder, it
creates conditions that risk escalating the number of those who will succumb to
it. A question worth pondering: How will making homosexually-oriented souls
into adoptive parents, idolizing their condition in school curricula, the media,
etc., impact the culture, the sum of
the ideas that shape us, the product of the health, virtue, and truthfulness of
the people who live in it?
Here are some potential/actual short-term legal ramifications:
Suppose one does not desire to attend a gay pride celebration in one's office? Suppose one does not wish rent a room in one's establishment to a homosexual couple, or bake a cake for a gay wedding?
Increasingly
proponents of same-sex "marriage" appear comfortable with the prospect that such coercion could (should?) happen..
At present the Catholic Church and
many Christians must live an uneasy peace with the sexual revolution. Christianity
and sin are always incompatible, but increasingly our culture is one of sin
normalized, institutionalized; no longer do we need to be saved from it.
How will same-sex marriage reduce this
tension? The state and the culture increasingly say two persons of the same sex can marry;
the Church says they cannot. This condition can’t last indefinitely. The Church’s position
is an obstacle to "sexual liberation", of
which homosexuality has become the current popular icon.
When the state and the rule
of law posit that Catholic teaching on marriage is bigoted, how will this
affect Catholics? Here are some interesting scenarios. Catacombs
anyone?
Comments
Post a Comment