Fr. Thomas Euteneur: 'Gay Marriage and the End of Christian Civilization'

By Father Thomas Euteneur, President, Human Life International
8/16/2010
Human Life International (www.hli.org/)

So why, you ask, is gay marriage wrong? Let me count the ways.

Father Thomas Euteneur, President, Human Life International

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FRONT ROYAL, VA (HLI.org) - Back in the 90s when Fr. Paul Marx, founder of HLI, was asked his opinion about the efforts to legalize "same-sex unions" he commented in his usual forthright fashion, "When they do that," he said, "it's the end." He meant "the end" of the Christian civilization whose values used to form the basis of American common life. Fr. Marx, in a prophetic sense, saw rightly that a society cannot survive the perverse manipulation of the very structure of reality that God Himself has revealed to us, one very fundamental element of which is the institution of marriage. When we allow that to be changed-"It's the end."

In 2009, 52% of the voting population in California endorsed Proposition 8 which ratified the constitutional protection of marriage as between a man and a woman. One might argue that even 52% was shockingly low on something so important, but the people won that battle despite the veritable war of the homosexual militants to sink that Proposition. In fact, Christian decency won and the structure of reality stayed intact, at least in this aspect of law in California, until this week when a single judge just nullified 7 million votes and the will of the people and lifted the "ban" on gay marriage. There was rejoicing in Sodom on the Bay, but how sad for our nation and even for our poor, misguided world that will weaken in its opposition to the homosexual lifestyle as a result of this decision.

So why, you ask, is gay marriage wrong? Let me count the ways.

First and foremost is because it violates the revealed Will of God as seen in Scripture. There are few things as clear in God's revelation as the sacred institution of marriage between a man and a woman. From Genesis 1 (the marriage of Adam and Eve) to Revelation 21 (the marriage of Christ the Lamb with His Bride the Church) God has had only one model of marriage, and it is not gay marriage. Even polygamy and divorce was done away with in the Christian Church, as Our Lord reminded all of the essence of marriage as it was "in the beginning." This Christian view of marriage became the norm of Western society and its most basic societal unit, undoubtedly allowing the West to flourish.

A close second to this is that gay marriage distorts the very concept of parenting as well as marriage. Even if you overlook the fact that gay marriage is by definition sterile, every child of a gay marriage has to be adopted or artificially inseminated, and that in itself is a violation of the whole concept of family. In the 80s the Vatican actually said that the adoption of children by homosexuals "does violence" to the child. Pretty strong language, but true nonetheless. In its simplest terms, kids need a mom and a dad, and are forever stigmatized by being the child of a gay marriage. Kids model their lives, their concept of family, their morals and oftentimes their whole worldview on their parents' attitudes and values. These kids get a totally distorted view of all these basics.

Third but by no means the last reason, all of society suffers because of the public endorsement of an intrinsically disordered lifestyle and practice. Yes, "disordered" is what our Church calls both the homosexual orientation and lifestyle, and gay marriage simply ratifies that disorder on a social level. In recent debates, the term "human right" to describe gay marriage and the charge that anyone who stands against it is guilty of "discrimination" are examples of these fundamental distortions. Fr. Marx was right: a society cannot long survive this kind of violence done to its basic values, and history surely shows many societies like Ancient Greece, whose rapid decline was preceded by the proliferation of the gay lifestyle and its public acceptance.

While we respect all people as they are, we don't have to respect such a wholesale assault on everything that is sacred to us and good for our society; no, in fact, we must fight against it with our very lives. The question is not whether or not we can win the battle; the question is whether we will join it. Will we accept the challenge to defend the sacred or not? We are called to be faithful and obedient to the Plan of God for our world, and within that, God will bring forth the victory. There is no doubt that, if it is not already there, gay marriage will be coming to your state soon. If we don't fight it, our souls, our families and basically, our very civilization, will find themselves at "the end" of the line in very short order.

This commentary appeared in today's HLI Spirit & Life Message

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The mission of HLI is to create effective opposition to the culture of death around the world. With 99 satellite offices in 87 countries, Human Life International is the largest pro-life and missionary organization in the world.

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1 - 10 of 49 Comments

Jean-Claude
11 months ago
This is a good column. I support the father as a real man, a great priest and a former Marine. He is the salt of the Earth. That said, we must understand that there are gays who are against abortion, who are doctors, who are good soldiers, who help and do not hurt children, who believe the Bible ... these are not gays who are at a bathhouse every weekend.

The society is so evil and so wicked that we cannot afford to discount the actions of good gay people. This year I met some gay people who told me America is like Rome and it will soon fall. Some gays are confused or even celibate. We need to help them find their way. Gays don't rail against how evil and wicked the non-gay society is. There are all kinds of perversions. I was at the Golden Triangle and saw trafficking in women. Gays were not involved. Women were sold off in Laos by THEIR OWN parents. Again, gays were not involved. Hugh Hefner is not gay and look at the sexual damage this "man" has caused. God sees the whole fabric of sexual sin. Sexual purity is a gift from God available to gays and non-gays. (In my opinion, all who want to be holy can repent and be holy. Period).

Yes, gays have tremendous political and social power (Madison Avenue, network TV shows) and so on, but non-gay men have anal sex with their wifes, boys in high school ask their girlfriends to engage in lesbian kissing ... so gays cannot be blamed for this. Christians see gays as an easy target. This is not godly.

The rise of gayness is a sign of the times, but it is not the most important sign. The days of Lot and Noah are here. That means good men who are called out the world will be hated and distained. Their families will suffer. They will be called "crazy."

My whole point as a Catholic and Christian is to remember not all gays are the same. Gays aren't murdering their children with abortion. Abortion is the greatest sin, a soul harvest.

The Tribulation must come. We must prepare. If being gay is a sin, and we care so much about "sin," then what about all of the sin in our own lives? On Judgement Day, gays won't save us or hurt us. We will stand alone based on all of our thoughts, deeds and actions.
Mark
2 years ago
Jacob: what a thoughtful and inspiring post. I wish I had your strength and courage when I was your age, but instead I was living a miserable life in the closet because of continual emotional and physical bullying at school, Catholic school no less. It took me years to recover from the torment the church caused me and I'm so happy to see from your post that the tide is changing. Considering the horrible suicides of gay youth in the last weeks you are truly and inspiration.
Jacob
2 years ago
I'm Catholic. I'm gay. I'm 18 years old. And I need to be corrected? I pray to God every night for guidance and to tell me if this life, my one life, is wrong and if I need to be corrected. God loves me. And if you can't accept that, may God have mercy on your soul.
Rene
2 years ago
THANK YOU Father Euteneur! Your message is crystal clear. My thought on the issue of gay "marriage"?....it's an abomination! You need a plug and an outlet to get light out of a lamp, heat from a stove, music from a radio....the same applies to creating LIFE! Let's take a lesson from Nature. To use the word "marriage" to legalize an unnatural union is decadent. John Pfannenstiel: you have a mission...to uphold the sacredness of Marriage, as Christ instituted it, any time you're given that opportunity. It's too easy to say: "the Church failed at this and at that"....you need to take action! You're in a position to really turn this around....exponentially, so your posting won't appear as "doublespeak". As far as "continuing to love our sisters and brothers who are gay"....well, I actually feel more pity than love at this point. But I do pray God will enlighten me to be able to love this perverted, misguided people. I may some day "love" them with a Universal Love....but I will continue to detest their depraved lifes. I was SOO embarrassed when a few years ago some decadent woman walked up to the stage to receive an "Oscar" and she said: "I owe this to my wife!" My 6 year old granddaughter turned around to me with a perplexed look in her eye and I nearly cried of frustration....at not being able to explain this abomination to an innocent child.
dandelionne
2 years ago
Hmm,ok let's do aside religion from and put logic into the debate. Indeed,having to spend your lifetime with someone you love and raise kids is a wonderful idea to begin with but for those who support gay marriage;I have a query - it's a fact that these gay couples would adopt children to comprise a "family",so what would these "parents" tell their kids if they begin to ask innocent questions like:

a. "Daddy,my friend has a female for a mother and a male for father, how come that mine are of the same?"

or

b."Why is the other kid's parents male and female? Are they normal?"

So are these couples ready for answers? Anyway,gay marriage does away the OEDIPUS COMPLEX which "is a regular and very important factor in a child's mental life" (Sigmund Freud,Introductory Lectures on Psychoanalysis;1920).
Bulbajer
2 years ago
Mike, how about the Amish? I'm serious. I'm not saying an aversion to technology is what God wants, but it does make sense that technology corrupts us somewhat. Also, their attitude is very Christian, even though they tend to be very conservative and close off themselves from ex-Amish. I have great respect for them. I believe some Quakers have a similar friendly, peaceful, Christian attitude, though much more moderate than the Amish.
mike
2 years ago
I agree with Fr. John's comment above that we must improve our PHILOSOPHICAL argumentation for true marriage and against gay marriage. Theological reasoning will not win the day. But our lifestyle must WITNESS the truth...maybe what we need are lay communities that shine like a beacon for the Sodomites to gnash their teeth at.
Anyone know of any?
Barb
2 years ago
Benjamin,

99% of the the U.S. population have their rights overturned by the 1% of the population who are sexually ill and gender disordered. Then, 1 homosexual judge overturns the will of 7 million voters. In the United States of America, a republic formed for the people and by the people.
Benjamin Holmes
2 years ago
Religion has no business to dictate the rights of people through the reality of official government policy. Besides, only Churches can make a marriage sacred, NOT the state. The secular government has NO business in dictating God's will. Also, Churches are protected in their right to adhere to traditional marriage notions- i.e. they would never be forced to perform same-sex marriage rites, unless they willingly elected to do so.

What if Muslims became the majority in America, and they wanted to impose Sharia law?

Separation of Church/Temple/Mosque and State, please.
ttc
2 years ago
Sanctity of marriage between man and woman

Let us pray together for the ban of the same- sex- marriages.May the Holy Spirit enlightens the mind and heart of the judge to give his favorable decision on the sanctity of marriage between man and female in the Mighty Name of Jesus.Amen.
Send Your Holy Gifts to the judge my dear Lord for a favorable righteous decision.Amen.

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