Gay Marriage starts today in California, congratulations to all the happy couples "taking the plunge" as they say. May your lives be enriched by the love that you share, and filled with many happy days, may any problems you face you remember to face together.
Monday, June 16, 2008
Gay Marriage
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2 comments:
As a fellow Catholic, I am very dissapointed and sorry to see you post this. Your comments about most other things on this blog have been very well thought out. Perhaps you can share why you think this gay "marriage" thing is a positive step? But before you do that, please let us know the "whys" behind the Church's very clear position on this subject, and your reasons as to why it should be supported. Thanks.
The church's teachings on homosexual persons is laid out in the Catechism:
2357 Homosexuality refers to relations between men or between women who experience an exclusive or predominant sexual attraction toward persons of the same sex. It has taken a great variety of forms through the centuries and in different cultures. Its psychological genesis remains largely unexplained. Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity,140 tradition has always declared that "homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered." 141 They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life. They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved.
2358 The number of men and women who have deep-seated homosexual tendencies is not negligible. This inclination, which is objectively disordered, constitutes for most of them a trial. They must be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided. These persons are called to fulfill God's will in their lives and, if they are Christians, to unite to the sacrifice of the Lord's Cross the difficulties they may encounter from their condition.
2359 Homosexual persons are called to chastity. By the virtues of self-mastery that teach them inner freedom, at times by the support of disinterested friendship, by prayer and sacramental grace, they can and should gradually and resolutely approach Christian perfection.
To sum up homosexuals are ok folks and shouldn't be mistreated because they're homosexuals because we can't discount the number of them or the science behind their existence, BUT, ontologically and as a matter of faith scripture and tradition have taught that physical sex acts between homosexuals is against the natural order of the sex act which is solely for the procreation of children, nothing more.
In light of all this and specifically in regards to the bold/italicised phrases above read the post on Gay Marriage and Religious Liberty. The key point is that we live in a pluralistic society where we separate the sacred and secular but still allow them to inform, though not conform, each other.
About the positive step... my reasons are purely secular. Since homosexuality is not the disease it was thought to be, and it's an immutable factor much like race, i see no reason why one should bar homosexuals from entering into a union. Gays have a lot to offer society including being "other parents" in that village required to raise children - meaning gays can play a pivotal role in shaping our children to be proactive productive members of society through adoption. (oh and this is working under the studies and science, again secular, that says that being gay doesn't mean you're going to indoctrinate another person into being gay, since orientation is predetermined at birth, and the fact that it's not necessarily about who the parent is in terms of gay or straight, the fact remains that children do better in loving homes with a pair of parents whether they're a heterosexual couple or a homosexual couple). And notice this positive step doesn't involve homosexuals doing that which the church finds disturbing, making sex acts, they're filling a functional role necessary to propagate the culture a role required of married heterosexuals also in addition after fulfilling their fecund obligations.
But again this is all secular reasoning as to why I support gay marriage, other than the 152 reasons listed in the tax code, listed as benefits and protections for the life you create in this free pluralistic society.
I suppose what's really confounding is I don't see how one can pro port a culture of life, over a culture of death when one works to exclude people from that culture. After all I know plenty of homosexuals who are pro-life, anti-abortion, anti-death penalty, pro-marriage (including their own) and pro-adoption. I could go on and on and on, but i've yet to have my morning pepsi cola, but e-mail me anytime and lets continue the conversation as they say.
Thanks for your post!!
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