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CrisisMag: If Contraception, Why Not Gay Marriage?
“Contraception is the selfish practice of mutual masturbation.” - Fr. John Hardon, SJ
Say what you will about those who support "gay marriage," but at least they are being consistent. They see Protestants(and dissident Catholics) advocate that immoral sexual practices like contraception and direct sterilization are legally acceptable, so why are other immoral sexual practices like sodomy not legally acceptable. To me, that crowd is just being consistent. Either sexuality has a purpose and there is such a thing as a natural sexuality (that should be supported by law), or sexuality's only true purpose is self gratification. There is a design or not, a Designer or not. Also, certain readers of the blog think that it's okay for the state to inflict morality on business practices but not to inflict "morality" (really it's not morality being inflicted but human nature) in defense of the natural family. There are no abortion advocates that don't also support contraception, and there are no "gay marriage" advocates that don't also support contraception, in vitro fertilization, ect. That smallest unit of society, the family, has been under attack for some time. But the "gay marriage" crowd isn't the cause of the attack on family life, it is the symptom.
7 comments:
To continue ranting a bit, why should anyone expect to hear about "gay marriage" from the pulpit if the fundamental problem of 90+% of Catholics using contraception is never addressed.
Excellent article! Thanks for sharing it! It's nice to see someone in academia acknowledge the same-sex marriage phenomenon as being borne of the "contraceptive mentality", and I will definitely check out the writings of G.E.M. Anscombe!
I thought that was WRTL doing the work...
Dang. Wish I had that picture for my dating suggestions post yesterday.
Wrong on all counts. First, as to marriage:
Genesis makes clear that the complete image of God is both male and female. The image had to be divided to create two sexes. Therefore, marriage, performed in the proper spirit, reunites the image of God. "Two shall become one." That is true whether or not children are possible, or desired.
It is true that the ONLY way children WILL be created is through uniting of male and female, although for some reason it CAN happen without benefit of marriage. Biologically, sex is all about reproduction of the species. But that is a numbers game: A billion salmon eggs result in a million fingerlings, resulting in a thousand adults of which less than one hundred make it back to reproduce -- the rest are in the food chain.
We are human beings, made in the image of God. So it is more than just about reproduction for us.
I don't have any strong objections to same-sex couples getting a license and having the right to visit each other in the hospital. I do object to the whining demand for it as a constitutional right. And I am quite sure that it does not reunite the Adam. But, in every generation, some statistical minority finds fulfillment that way rather than in the opposite sex. How badly does that offend God. I'm content to leave that between them and God.
To each issue its own merits. Contraception is not gay sex, and vice versa. If gay couples were doing this to AVOID children, why would they be pursuing impregnation by turkey baster and demanding to adopt? A lot of them love children. But, they might not be the best placement for the children. They really just might not, however unfair it is.
Here's how it is connected: Human sexuality is ordered toward procreation. The act itself has an end, just as if I eat an apple, that act is order towards nourishing my body. If the act is thwarted intentionally, it becomes DIS ordered. Therefore, the sexual act between two persons of the same sex is DIS ordered because there is no possibility of procreation.
The contraceptive mentality opens the floodgates for a whole host of DISordered philosophy because it severs the connection between sex and procration. Unnatural sexual practices are just a logical outgrowth. The whole "gay rights" thing is simply propogation to defend the DISordered sexual practices.
credo, I hate to hinge an argument on holding you responsible for a bad choice of analogy. Recognizing that analogy can only illustrate, not prove a premise to be true or false...
...if I ate an apple after bariatric surgery, would that be a sin equal to using contraception within a marriage?
ALL sexuality IS ordered toward procreation. Marriage is not required, nor ordinarily entered into, except among HUMANS. Arguably, human sexuality is ordered toward additional divine intentions, in addition to procreation.
Same-sex couples seeking to be recognized as a "marriage" is a VERY recent phenomenon. I won't catalog the forms that homosexual urges took in the past, it would take too long, and we would mostly agree on what they were, and that many of them were terribly wrong and exploitive.
There is a plausible claim that the nonprocreative purposes of HUMAN sexuality may find tender expression in mutual self-sacrifice between two people of the same sex. On the other hand, it certainly does not reunite the Adam.
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