The Other Side of the Slippery Slope

[Michaelo]

Even if same-sex marriage becomes illegal, the law will still fail to completely uphold Catholic marriage. By outlawing ssm, do we obligate ourselves to continue down that slope and make cohabitation, artificial birth control, single parenting, etc. illegal as well?

 

[Wowbagger]

I just got repeatedly beat over the head in another thread over my answer to a similar question, so I’ll just post what the Catechism says about it and leave the interpretation for the rest of the forum to discuss:

2210 The importance of the family for the life and well-being of society entails a particular responsibility for society to support and strengthen marriage and the family. Civil authority should consider it a grave duty “to acknowledge the true nature of marriage and the family, to protect and foster them, to safeguard public morality, and promote domestic prosperity.”

2211 The political community has a duty to honor the family, to assist it, and to ensure especially:

• the freedom to establish a family, have children, and bring them up in keeping with the family’s own moral and religious convictions;
• the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family;
• the freedom to profess one’s faith, to hand it on, and raise one’s children in it, with the necessary means and institutions;
• the right to private property, to free enterprise, to obtain work and housing, and the right to emigrate;
• in keeping with the country’s institutions, the right to medical care, assistance for the aged, and family benefits;
• the protection of security and health, especially with respect to dangers like drugs, pornography, alcoholism, etc.;
• the freedom to form associations with other families and so to have representation before civil authority.

The key to this question, it seems to me, is “the protection of the stability of the marriage bond and the institution of the family,” and it seems there are several prudential ways one might go about doing that. Some might not even involve the abolition of same-sex civil “marriage”. But it does appear to me that the Catholic teaching would ideally give us a society where all deliberate and willful threats to marriage, from artificial birth control to cohabitation to same-sex “marriage” (man, those scare quotes are getting tedious) to remarriage following civil divorce.

However, the prospect of actually doing so in this country and not provoking a civil war is so remote as to be seriously discouraging. So… eh. Like I said, I’m done doing actual apologetics for the night. Have at it.

 

[elts1956]

Even if same-sex marriage becomes illegal, the law will still fail to completely uphold Catholic marriage. By outlawing ssm, do we obligate ourselves to continue down that slope and make cohabitation, artificial birth control, single parenting, etc. illegal as well?

I don’t think “same sex” marriage, “cohabitation”, “artificial birth control”, “nor single parenting” can ever be made illegal. The issue with same sex marriage is not the legality of such, but whether one can “respectably” be in such a relationship, one that is honored by law and having the same legal rights as those of heterosexual couples. Marriage, until this era, has always been held to be that of a consensual partnership between a male and female. Homosexual couples have no secular rights as far as insurance, etc., but these folks are not “hounded” by law and put into jail for their private activities, but due to their push for “equal” rights in secular law and marriage, they are making it more difficult to live in a moral society that approves only of God given rights, such as Marriage between two heterosexual couples. Whether they succeed in gaining secular protection in law, they can never be “equal” sacramentally.

By the way, I don’t think “single parenting” has been an issue either in the Church, or out of it.

 

[tm30]

Even if same-sex marriage becomes illegal, the law will still fail to completely uphold Catholic marriage. By outlawing ssm, do we obligate ourselves to continue down that slope and make cohabitation, artificial birth control, single parenting, etc. illegal as well?

It’s a good question, actually. In my opinion, the SSM issue strikes at the heart of social order in any civilized community. SSM can never, in any way, or at any future point of its lifespan, become transformed into something that benefits the human community. Although cohabitation is also counter-family, it is of a lesser detriment to society because it still retains the potential to become a legitimate marriage/offspring household that conforms to natural law. SSM can never be such - it will always be defective. So, are we obliged to fight to return the legal enforcement of anti-cohabitation laws? In theory, perhaps. But since the cultural climate provides no reasonable hope of success, and given the heightened sinfulness of SSM, we are duty-bound to engage the battle at hand.

 

[fix]

Even if same-sex marriage becomes illegal, the law will still fail to completely uphold Catholic marriage. By outlawing ssm, do we obligate ourselves to continue down that slope and make cohabitation, artificial birth control, single parenting, etc. illegal as well?

Many of these things used to be illegal including contraception and adultery.

A case can be made to make many of these things illegal again. But, that would depend on several factors including the point that if making them illegal would cause more harm then it would not be reasonable.

But, the issue we face presently is an unraveling of society on many levels. The family is the basic unit of society. It is in serious trouble now in regard to things like divorce, abuse, pan sexuality, contraception, and much else. Why not try and stop it from getting worse by not allowing such faux unions and then work backward to start to repair the mess?

 

[elts1956]

Even if same-sex marriage becomes illegal, the law will still fail to completely uphold Catholic marriage. By outlawing ssm, do we obligate ourselves to continue down that slope and make cohabitation, ( was once illegal in this country and one could be prosecuted in court if evidence was found that one was “cohabitating”, )artificial birth control didn’t exist at that time, single parenting, was frowned upon, also quite inconvenient monitarily as women were allowed to perform only the lowest life supporting work. etc. illegal as well?