Category: Marriage & Family

Today’s letter from the CDF, a meditation on man and woman, reminds us that in the Christian understanding of reality, God created beings with distinctions among them, and he created humanity in two kinds. These differences are not illusory and baneful, but good and based in the ontological character of the created beings.
WIthout distinctions between beings, there is no relationship between them. Certain Eastern religious ideas affirm only one Being, with no fundamental difference between God and us, and even all the things and persons that we experience. Christianity affirms the difference between the Creator and the creature as true and as the most fundamental distinction of all. This difference makes possible a relationship between an ‘I’ and a ‘You’, not merely an ‘I’ and itself.
CDF writes:

The first text (Gn 1:1-2:4) describes the creative power of the Word of God, which makes distinctions in the original chaos. Light and darkness appear, sea and dry land, day and night, grass and trees, fish and birds, “each according to its kind”. An ordered world is born out of differences, carrying with them also the promise of relationships. Here we see a sketch of the framework in which the creation of the human race takes place: “God said ‘Let us make man in our image, after our likeness’” (Gn 1:26). And then: “God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them” (Gn1:27). From the very beginning therefore, humanity is described as articulated in the male-female relationship. This is the humanity, sexually differentiated, which is explicitly declared “the image of God”.

The very first sin, as described in Genesis, involves the failure to acknowledge the difference between Creator and creature. This breach disrupts the relation of God and man, and has repercussions on all the other relationships: that between man and woman, and between man and other creatures.
Acknowledging the other as other, and as good, is absolutely necessary. Without it, there is no possibility of love.

Or maybe just bear one another.
Is carrying your wife a bit of rustic chivalry? Man’s exploitation of woman? Woman’s exploitation of man? Maybe a symbol of mutual self-donation?

It gives medical malpractice attorneys new grounds for claiming damages. Isn’t luv beautiful?

Julianne Wiley wants to engage the culture:

Massachusetts Marry-Pranksters! Time to get out there with your dogs and cats, in pairs and groups, and demand marriage licenses for all 3 or 4 or 5 of you!
I’m kidding, but I’m not kidding. Guys, get your 3 best poker friends — ladies, get the gal next to you at Curves — and demand a license! See if you can re-marry your spouse PLUS the Best Man! See if they refuse you?! If they do, threaten a lawsuit! Make sure you bring your digital camera.
At least get out there with a picket sign that says, “Kitty Catastrophe is My Best Friend! Why Don’t You Recognize Our Love???”
~Make a little mischief~
I’d do it.

From the Associated Press

A woman has no parental rights over the twins she was raising with her lesbian partner – even though she is the childrens’ genetic mother, an appeals court ruled.

and

The court said though the genetic mother was a loving, at-home parent, “functioning as a parent does not bestow legal status as a parent.”