What should the Church do if gay marriage "bans" are found unconstitutional?

[Racer_X]

Suppose the US Supreme Court follows the example of the California judge who today ruled that California’s definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman is unconstitutional? What should the Church do?

Here is my suggestion for discussion.

The Church should then divorce itself (sorry for the pun) entirely from the state’s institution of “marriage.” That is, proclaim publicly that what the Church does when it brings together a man and a woman to make a family has nothing to do with the state’s sanction of “relationships.” No more would priests exercise their state-recognized power of declaring a couple married. Priests would not sign anything issued by the state.

Catholic couples should be encouraged to refrain from participating in the state version of “marriage” and not go out of their way to obtain recognition by the state separately. They would just say that the Church has declared us to be so married, we are in fact married and that’s that. If the common law of the state recognized it eventually, fine, but it should not be sought.

Discussion? I am genuinely interested in your reactions. What do you think the outcome of such a strategy would be?

 

[Racer_X]

Mods, maybe this topic should be in Moral Theology. Your call.

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Racer X:

Suppose the US Supreme Court follows the example of the California judge who today ruled that California’s definition of marriage as being between a man and a woman is unconstitutional? What should the Church do?

Here is my suggestion for discussion.

The Church should then divorce itself (sorry for the pun) entirely from the state’s institution of “marriage.” That is, proclaim publicly that what the Church does when it brings together a man and a woman to make a family has nothing to do with the state’s sanction of “relationships.” No more would priests exercise their state-recognized power of declaring a couple married. Priests would not sign anything issued by the state.

Catholic couples should be encouraged to refrain from participating in the state version of “marriage” and not go out of their way to obtain recognition by the state separately. They would just say that the Church has declared us to be so married, we are in fact married and that’s that. If the common law of the state recognized it eventually, fine, but it should not be sought.

Discussion? I am genuinely interested in your reactions. What do you think the outcome of such a strategy would be?

What the Church should do is what the Church will do, clearly state it’s position based on natural law and continue following the law of God as it has for 2000+ years.

 

[Kevin_Walker]

Br. Rich SFO:

What the Church should do is what the Church will do, clearly state it’s position based on natural law and continue following the law of God as it has for 2000+ years.

And hopefully ‘act’ on that position, or else the Church will have a repetition of sexual abuse every time homosexuals infiltrate the Church unchecked.

 

[Brain]

Natural law is above human law. The complimentary nature of the sexes is natural law. The chirch would never aknowlege the gay “mairrages” and see them as yet more miguided deteriorations of western society. We would also continue to support the true meaning of mairrage, and work to revrse the legal errors.

 

[Digitonomy]

Racer X:

Discussion? I am genuinely interested in your reactions. What do you think the outcome of such a strategy would be?

I think such a strategy would be a silly over-reaction. Your argument seems to be based on the notion that up to the present, Church law and civil law have been congruent on this issue. However, there are many situations where the Church will recognize a marriage exists while the state will not, and vice versa. This has not required the Church to adopt some sort of guerilla strategy to undermine civil law in this area. Trying to do so would reflect poorly on the Church, and make it look a bit like a cult to the uninformed (who are large in number these these days).

 

[Br.Rich_SFO]

Kevin Walker:

And hopefully ‘act’ on that position, or else the Church will have a repetition of sexual abuse every time homosexuals infiltrate the Church unchecked.

The Church does not bar homosexuals from being members of the Church, never has and never will. It will continue teaching that homosexuality is and always will be disordered according to natural law.