partner for a long time, are not the equivalent of a marriage, no matter what any court or legislature says. The reason that marriage - and the family founded upon it - has become the foundation of civil societies across ethnic, geographical, religious and racial communities is because it is an institution revealed by the Natural Law. It is not some social construct which can be discarded, redefined or ever replaced. Further, the legal and policy effort of the “Human Rights Campaign” to equate how one engages in non-marital sexual acts with a member of the same sex to being a member of a particular race, or gender (thereby making practicing homosexuals a “protected class” for civil rights purposes) is legally and socially dangerous. One is a status; the other involves a behavior and a lifestyle.

Though disputed, some maintain that same sex attraction is a genetic predisposition. Even if it were the case, that should not give homosexual practice a “civil rights” status. Should we then give other disordered appetites civil rights status? Certainly, those who engage in a homosexual lifestyle should be treated with the human dignity that they deserve and not be discriminated against. However, that is because they are human not because of their sexual behavior. Homosexual sexual acts are simply homosexual sexual acts. Our bodies do not lie, they speak the language written within their constitution and confirmed in the Natural Law which binds us all.

Marriage between a man and a woman, intended for life, open to children - and the family founded upon it - is not some “antiquated” institution. It is the first society, first government, first school, first economy, first church and first mediating institution of civil society. Marriage and family ground our organizing vision of the broader society and inform our philosophy of governance. That includes the proper application of the place of the principle of subsidiarity, deferring to the family first. Strong marriages and the families founded upon them pave the path to a future of true human and relational progress, human flourishing and a healthy and happy civil society. Using the Police Power of the State to force our entire society to accept some legal equivalency between homosexual relationships and marriage, or face the brunt of the police power of the State, will not lead to a freer society or serve the common good.

Marriage has been given a privileged and protected legal and social status for a good reason, because it does serve the common good. It is the primary civilizing institution, constituted for the bearing and caring of children in an environment wherein they can best be nurtured, loved, socialized, schooled in the virtues and prepared for life in broader communities. Marriage has long been accepted as having been revealed in the Natural Law, which is knowable by all men and women through the exercise of reason. Its recognition as an institution crosses cultures and spans time.

Yes, religious traditions, including my own, build upon the Natural Law through specific revelation. However, to call the insistence upon protecting marriage as between a man and a woman simply a “religious” position is a ploy. It is sophistry. It is simply a way of avoiding the real issues. Sadly, some Christians, by using the term “traditional” marriage play right into this continuing effort. You see, if our position on marriage is simply “religious”, well, in this current “dictatorship of relativism” (a phrase astutely coined by Pope Benedict XVI) then it must be kept “private”, and we need to keep our “opinions” and practices within our religious ghettos - we have no “right” to propose that it should be reflected in the positive law of the Nation.

What occurred on Saturday night is a very, very serious matter. President Obama has sent the signal. He will not defend marriage. Instead he will champion the Homosexual Equivalency movement.


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Pope Benedict XVI's Prayer Intentions for January 2013
General Intention: The Faith of Christians. That in this Year of Faith Christians may deepen their knowledge of the mystery of Christ and witness joyfully to the gift of faith in him.
Missionary Intention: Middle Eastern Christians. That the Christian communities of the Middle East, often discriminated against, may receive from the Holy Spirit the strength of fidelity and perseverance.

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