OpinionJournal.com has a piece by Methodist minister Donald Sensing about the connection between artificial contraception and gay marriage. Though on the surface, the two phenomena have little in common, he makes the right connections:
Sex, childbearing and marriage now have no necessary connection to one another, because the biological connection between sex and childbearing is controllable. The fundamental basis for marriage has thus been technologically obviated. Pair that development with rampant, easy divorce without social stigma, and talk in 2004 of "saving marriage" is pretty specious. There's little there left to save. Men and women today who have successful, enduring marriages till death do them part do so in spite of society, not because of it.If society has abandoned regulating heterosexual conduct of men and women, what right does it have to regulate homosexual conduct, including the regulation of their legal and property relationship with one another to mirror exactly that of hetero, married couples?
I believe that this state of affairs is contrary to the will of God. But traditionalists, especially Christian traditionalists (in whose ranks I include myself) need to get a clue about what has really been going on and face the fact that same-sex marriage, if it comes about, will not cause the degeneration of the institution of marriage; it is the result of it.
I don't share his pessimistic view of how modern people view marriage -- from my perspective, most secular married couples want to remain married until death, though many are woefully unprepared to make that happen -- but he's a pastor and deals with married people on a more intimate level than I do.
It is my fervent hope that Protestants join the Catholic Church in opposing artificial contraception, the exacerbating cause of bad marriages, illegitimacy, spousal abuse, and abortion. (It isn't the sole cause, and eliminating it wouldn't make those problems disappear, but it drives those problems.) Such a change would only be a return to the universal Protestant tradition until 70 years ago, when the Anglicans decided they would abandon Christianity for the siren-call of the world, and decide to place their faith in latex and chemicals instead of God's providence.
Ah, yes. The "Marriage is already in Hell, so what could Gay marriage hurt?" argument. Otherwise known as the "Throw gasoline on the fire" argument. No matter how bad things are, making things worse will. . .only make things worse. Therefore it is best not to make things worse.
I don't think that's what Rev. Sensing is saying -- he's pointing out that gay marriage is a manifestation of the bigger problem: contraception, and all that it implies. He's not saying that we should just go ahead and approve of gay marriage.
Eric,
Perhaps you're right, especially since what I read was only your excerpt. But I have heard different forms of that argument around the net quite a bit, including from people who are traditional Christians.
Yes, I've heard that argument too, and I reject it as well. I get a little frustrated with people whose first instinct is to crawl into a hole instead of making things better.
In college in 1980 our religion class read parts of Humane Vitae--our teacher--a Jesuit and the class (myself included sad to say) mocked this and told each other this was more Papal nonsense---now, seeing how much has come to pass, the Pope was a prophet. So much wisdom in the Church that is ignored by the "enlightened"
I think Reverend Sensing has hit on something, and think the problem may go a little deeper still. I don't think Christians have been offering a view of sex, chastity and marriage as opportunities to grow in generosity and grace and to focus our lives on God and the service of Him. We have relied on tradition and convention rather than teaching and theology, and we are finding that those traditions don't make sense to the general populace once the underlying assumptions about chastity and hedonism have been blown to smithereens by twenty (forty?) years of Madonna, Led Zeppelin et al.
Although Rev. Sensing is hitting on some fundamental truths here AND there are many members of the Catholic Church who have rejected Humanae Vitae outright - the fact is that it was the mainline protestant churches who, in the 1930's, no longer condemned the use of birth control, who allow divorce and remarriage and they fail to see the connection to abortion, promiscuity and homosexual marriage!! Duh! Amazing!
Hear, hear -- ever since this whole thing started I've maintained that it's been in the making for 40 years (ever since contraception was legalized).
To be honest, I don't have much hope that something that the culture has steeped in for forty years can be overcome in just a couple.