Gay "marriage" question for CATHOLICS

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If we did away with all laws that legislate morality, we would have no laws against murder, rape, theft, etc.

Marriage is a sacrament, but also precedes the sacraments. It was an institution on its own for thousands of years before Jesus raised it to the level of a sacrament.

You’re right, the government should not be defining it, but it should be defending it, because it is something independent of religious creed or personal opinion.
We would not, because none of those laws need to prohibit the behavior on the basis that it is immoral; they only prohibit the behavior because of how it deprives another of a fundamental right (life, liberty, etc).
 
  1. The government grant was withdrawn as a way of forcing the values held by the government on Catholic Charities, not because Catholic Charities was doing bad work.
No one said they were doing bad work. The Court made a decision, the organization was informed of the regulations, they refused to comply. It’s a not a conspiracy, it’s just the law. No one is forcing their ideas on us. We can have all the adoption agencies we want working the way we wish. We just can’t use everyone else’s money to do so.
  1. We MUST try to get others to “act the way we want them to act,” at least when it comes to basic morals, because basic moral questions are part of the truth that Christ gave to us and told us to spread.
He told us to spread the Gospel, make known His Word. He didn’t tell us to try and make people act in a certain way.
  1. It makes no sense to say the ability of Catholics to ignore gay “marriages” depends on legal issues because the law is what it is made to be. Legal issues can be changed by changing the law, moral issues cannot be changed because morality is fixed. We must attempt to make the law what it should be, and the law should not force us to pretend that two gay people are married. This is independent of whether or not current law would view that as discrimination or anything along those lines. It simply doesn’t matter.
I just am not seeing a moral issue in giving legal civil status to same sex marriage. There are all kinds of marriages the Church doesn’t see as Sacramental, all kinds of people are divorced and remarried and we believe those are not marriages. Whenever did we rise up or were encouraged to, to pass laws to have those marriages invalidated? When did we refuse to allow such people to adopt children?

The moral issue is the same for all things we believe are immoral but are also legal. Why didn’t the USCCB come out and lead us into those battles? Pass laws to keep divorced people from remarrying? Why don’t they now? Why aren’t there multiple threads about these other issues no one seems to are about?

When a divorced, single mom moves next door with her children who play with your children and they ask, you are going to tell them we believe divorce is… what? A sin. Are you going to let your kids play with those kids? Try to keep them out of your school?
 
On what basis are these legal rights considered rights?

As far as gay people being hurt or being treated as sub-human, how does that relate to the topic? In 1973, the American Psychiatric Association removed Homosexuality through a non-science based vote from the Diagnostic ans Statistical Manual.
Which was the same way it was put in.
 
Oh, I see. The way the government forces us to treat black folks.
This is dirty pool. No one is denying that gay people are human beings. The question is about marriage, what marriage is, and whether a couple of the same-sex can make a marriage. The answer is no. This is not discrimination, it is biology. To suggest that because I oppose same-sex marriage, I must be some sort of bigot is an unwarranted insult.
 
We would not, because none of those laws need to prohibit the behavior on the basis that it is immoral; they only prohibit the behavior because of how it deprives another of a fundamental right (life, liberty, etc).
And why is depriving a person of a “fundamental right” a bad thing?

Because it’s immoral.

If you were going to give another reason, it doesn’t really matter - if I keep asking why long enough you’d have to get to a moral issue eventually.
 
There was no vote in Washington State by the people.
There was actually:
Referendum 71 (R-71) was a vote held in 2009 in which the people of Washington state confirmed Senate Bill 5688, a law extending the rights and obligations of domestic partnership in Washington. The Bill was approved 53% to 47%; this marked the first time in the United States that voters had approved a state-wide ballot measure that extended LGBT relationship rights,[1] … The law went into effect the day the election was certified, December 3, 2009.[2]
The state doesn’t call it marriage, but extended all rights of marriage making them indistinguishable. The vote this November is an attempt to repeal a same-sex marriage law, which just combined the two previous identical but for the word “marriage” civil contracts.
From the Wall Street Journal:
"Washington State officials said Tuesday that a group opposing gay marriage had collected enough signatures for a referendum that seeks to repeal a same-sex marriage law passed by the state’s legislature this year.
“Preserve Marriage Washington turned in more than 247,000 signatures in support of its Referendum 74, more than double the nearly 121,000 it needed to get the repeal on the ballot. Implementation of the same-sex marriage law passed earlier this year is on hold until the November election.”
I’m unclear as to whether they are trying to undo domestic partnerships as well, or just calling it marriage. I admit I conflated the two, as they are in fact identical except in name.
 
This is dirty pool. No one is denying that gay people are human beings. The question is about marriage, what marriage is, and whether a couple of the same-sex can make a marriage. The answer is no. This is not discrimination, it is biology. To suggest that because I oppose same-sex marriage, I must be some sort of bigot is an unwarranted insult.
👍

One of the best explanations I’ve seen given.
 
And why is depriving a person of a “fundamental right” a bad thing?

Because it’s immoral.

If you were going to give another reason, it doesn’t really matter - if I keep asking why long enough you’d have to get to a moral issue eventually.
Never said it wasn’t, or that any of those things aren’t.
 
We would not, because none of those laws need to prohibit the behavior on the basis that it is immoral; they only prohibit the behavior because of how it deprives another of a fundamental right (life, liberty, etc).
Exactly. Those things are legislated because of the impact they have on the entire community. That’s exactly why the government cannot simply “bow out” of addressing marriage. The fabric of society depends on marriage being upheld as it really is. If the government simply stepped back and did nothing, the results would be catastrophic.
 
We “must” be able to say that? Who? Catholics? The country isn’t made up of only Catholics. And the last thing we “must” do is force our beliefs on the populace. Or, shall we declare ourselves the American Taliban?

Everyone doesn’t believe what we believe, that’s why we are a country under rule of law, not rule of church. Before the Revolution, you know who’s marriages were invalid? Catholics. Or anyone married outside the Church of England. Did we like that? No. Let’s not treat people the way we didn’t want to be treated.
Two people of the same-sex cannot MAKE a marriage, no matter what anyone anywhere calls it. The only way to pretend they can is to redefine marriage so that children are an incidental feature, like an inside pocket on a coat.Many people have adopted this error and many encourage others to do the same, and the idea is increasingly current but nonetheless wrong.

That this error follows several others—the widespread use of contraception and abortion, most notably—doesn’t make it any less an error. (It’s easier to understand—many heterosexual couples who rely on contraception and abortion when needed have divorced sexuality from childbearing and taken to thinking about sex the way homosexuals presumably do: something with no connection to children.)
 
We would not, because none of those laws need to prohibit the behavior on the basis that it is immoral; they only prohibit the behavior because of how it deprives another of a fundamental right (life, liberty, etc).
👍
 
American Taliban? Was that necessary? That was rude and uncalled for.
It was descriptive. This is what happens when you conflate religion and government, something we must avoid at all costs. (And note I never said anyone was that, I said we might as well start to call ourselves that if we are going to try and impose our religious beliefs on the population.)
The Church recognizes what marriage is.
Our religion defines beliefs and this is one of them. That you believe there is a universal definition of marriage which can never be ab anything else is a religious belief, a tenant of faith.
Did you miss the fact that the OP directed this thread only at Catholics? Does Church teaching matter, at all?
Of course it does. The Church teaches a lot of things, one of which is, we do not force our beliefs on others.
**Believers and non-believers are both being called to defend the common good of society, including Catholic politicians.
**
That is the issue. Not - there’s a “civil world” over here, and a “Catholic world” over there. Catholics are being called to stop being silent about this.
I’m not being silent about it. I am doing all in my power to follow Christ and defend the common good.
Fact: On a board where I am a moderator, those who favor gay marriage want one thing from religious people - APATHY. They want us to stop caring. They want us to stop speaking up.
I’m sorry: “fact?” Please link me to the board and I will post a poll. P Otherwise, I think this is your subjective assessment of others mindset. BTW, do you want Catholics to keep speaking up for the civil right to marriage for same sex couples?
 
Exactly. Those things are legislated because of the impact they have on the entire community. That’s exactly why the government cannot simply “bow out” of addressing marriage. The fabric of society depends on marriage being upheld as it really is. If the government simply stepped back and did nothing, the results would be catastrophic.
The fabric of society does not hinge upon the government’s definition of marriage. If they are going to be involved in marriage at all, they will have to define it. And when they do, they will have a chance to get it wrong.

If you want marriage upheld, as do I, then looking to government bureaucrats to do it is ill-advised.
 
If we did away with all laws that legislate morality, we would have no laws against murder, rape, theft, etc.
This is not correct, IMO. Criminal law is about protecting the rights of the individual to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."

Jesus Christ told us when someone tries to take our coat, give him our shirt, also. This is the moral imperative. The law says when someone tries to take your coat, he goes to jail. Law isn’t about morality. Or shouldn’t be.
 
No one said they were doing bad work. The Court made a decision, the organization was informed of the regulations, they refused to comply. It’s a not a conspiracy, it’s just the law. No one is forcing their ideas on us. We can have all the adoption agencies we want working the way we wish. We just can’t use everyone else’s money to do so.
“It’s just the law” is a terrible defense when we’re talking about what law should be. That law is wrong. That’s all there is to it. Telling me that the law is not wrong because it’s the law makes no sense.

Government has taken over a lot of charity work. It has done this by taking money from people and giving it to other people to do charity work. If the government should not use the latest cultural fads over the good that is being done to determine who gets the money.

This is obvious. But if the government can’t handle it, then they should back out of the charity business and let people donate directly to the organizations they support. And if we think that will result in a catastrophic drop in charity (which it might) then we need to insure that the government gives out charity money based only on whether or not the charity is doing a good job, and does not discriminate based on that charity’s religious beliefs.

This is not a legal question. This is a question of what the law should be, not what it is.
He told us to spread the Gospel, make known His Word. He didn’t tell us to try and make people act in a certain way.
Spreading the word and trying to convince (not force - I never said that no matter how often you say that I did) people to follow it are the same thing.

You keep saying that you don’t understand why it is immoral to support the government regularizing immoral things. I’m going to try this one more time:

As Catholics, we know that same sex marriage does not and can not exist. If the government makes it law then it will a) force us to treat it like it exists, b) help it to become to seem to many people as though it is a real thing and normal and good.

a) is a violation of our freedoms.
b) is a violation of truth.

As a Catholic, we CANNOT support actions which are aimed at normalizing immorality.

I’m not going to argue your random attacks on things I didn’t say at the end of your post.
 
As Catholics, we know that same sex marriage does not and can not exist. If the government makes it law then it will a) force us to treat it like it exists, b) help it to become to seem to many people as though it is a real thing and normal and good.

a) is a violation of our freedoms.
b) is a violation of truth.

As a Catholic, we CANNOT support actions which are aimed at normalizing immorality.

I’m not going to argue your random attacks on things I didn’t say at the end of your post.
I agree. This is why the government should not be involved. If they have the power to define it, and they do, it is inevitable that they will misuse it.
 
I just am not seeing a moral issue in giving legal civil status to same sex marriage. There are all kinds of marriages the Church doesn’t see as Sacramental, all kinds of people are divorced and remarried and we believe those are not marriages. Whenever did we rise up or were encouraged to, to pass laws to have those marriages invalidated? When did we refuse to allow such people to adopt children?
The question is, how can one remain true to Catholic teaching- where is resolutely clear on the point that marriage is a Sacrament between a man and woman- and at the same time support civil or same sex “marriage?” If one merely acquiesces to the latter but considers it a fiction, a “marriage” in name only, is one then still true to the Sacrament?
 
The question is, how can one remain true to Catholic teaching- where is resolutely clear on the point that marriage is a Sacrament between a man and woman- and at the same time support civil or same sex “marriage?” If one merely acquiesces to the latter but considers it a fiction, a “marriage” in name only, is one then still true to the Sacrament?
Depends on what you mean by “support”. Supporting someone’s right to be wrong is not the same as believing that wrong is right.
 
The fabric of society does not hinge upon the government’s definition of marriage. If they are going to be involved in marriage at all, they will have to define it. And when they do, they will have a chance to get it wrong.

If you want marriage upheld, as do I, then looking to government bureaucrats to do it is ill-advised.
They get the definition of “murder” wrong, too, by defining the murder of babies as “women’s reproductive health” and the murder of old people as “dying with dignity.” That doesn’t mean I want them to throw in the towel completely and not define anything as murder.

To quote the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Because married couples ensure the succession of generations and are therefore eminently within the public interest, civil law grants them institutional recognition.” There’s no need for the government to define marriage. They only have to recognize what it is.
 
They get the definition of “murder” wrong, too, by defining the murder of babies as “women’s reproductive health” and the murder of old people as “dying with dignity.” That doesn’t mean I want them to throw in the towel completely and not define anything as murder.

To quote the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, “Because married couples ensure the succession of generations and are therefore eminently within the public interest, civil law grants them institutional recognition.” There’s no need for the government to define marriage. They only have to recognize what it is.
Gay marriage doesn’t lead to dead people, so it’s not an equal comparison.

If the government is going to attach privileges and recognition to married couples, then they do need some way of defining who these people are.
 
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