Here’s my latest for InsideCatholic. An article which discusses the public aspect of marriage. See what you think.
Marriage in the Public Eye
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Thank you, Father L. Succinct and to the point from the first word to the last.
A question, Father: why should the specifically Catholic understanding of marriage be the law of the land?I could be wrong, but I don’t think it’s the case that gay marriage is simply about making a public statement. Many – most – gay people are not the radical activists who get most press coverage. Many are ordinary, boring, rather conservative people who want to commit to each other, build a family together, and intertwine their lives just like straight couples. Gay marriage is arguably actually a rather conservative cause! Have you read the work of guys like Andrew Sullivan – e.g. “Virtually Normal”?
Interesting question about the Catholic understanding of marriage being the law of the land. Actually, from a civil perspective, isn’t marriage about the protection of children? If homosexuals are allowed to marry, then they are allowed to “parent” children, be it by adoption, in vitro fertilization, etc. There is a very public case right now of a lesbian chef whose “wife” bore the chef’s child. The chef is pregnant right now, and I think she said that she doesn’t know if it is biologically her child or her “wife’s” child. Incredible. Not only that, where are the fathers of these children? Doesn’t the law, as it now stands in most states, insure that children have a basic right to their biological mothers and fathers?Father Longenecker, you may want to chime in on this one.
Niall,Quite true that many homosexual couples are ordinary, honest, sometimes conservative people. But one can probably say the same about the majority of polygamists out there. Does that mean that marriage ought to be legally and/or religiously extended to them? Marriage is, traditionally, limited to one man and one woman, at least in our Western Civilization. Marriage is not just a legal formalization (although some gays would say otherwise) of some bonded relationship. It is, at least for many people, a God-given institution. Matrimony is a reverent and sacred joining of one male and one female. God made these to be the natural love mates of each other. They are opposites. They are nature’s awesome and ONLY way of passing along the torch of life through sexual conception. Marriages between the two sexes are often not perfect. But “marriage” should nevertheless be reserved for this very special communion between one man and one woman…and for nothing else. Homosexuals who form couples have legal union rights already. But their rights should not extend to co-opting the sacrament of marriage to their own ends.