I am part of an online Christian forum that regularly discusses Christian beliefs and issues. The latest discussion to come up is on the subject of same sex marriage, which (as always) opened up a whole can of worms. One of the commenters posted this document from the Catholic Church on their stance in regards to same sex marriage, which in summary says: if you're a man, marry a woman and if you're a woman, marry a man and procreate...or you are living a sinful life.
After reading that document, I am only more convinced that the Catholic Church's stance against same sex marriage is ungrounded. I am unmoved by a document that cites every sentence outlining the benefits of heterosexual marriage but does not make one single citation when hypothesizing that the good effects of marriage "probably" don't apply to same sex marriages.
The way I see it, sexuality is very modern construct of our society. When the bible was written (the old testament anyway) people were not asked to identify themselves based on sexual preferences. It didn't matter if a man preferred men or women, he married a women and had children, and if he preferred men, perhaps he had a "mister" on the side (it's been a while since I've studied ancient cultures, but if I recall correctly, women were not exactly afforded the same leeway men were, that's not to say it never happened...)
We live in a (somewhat) more open minded society now where men and women choose who they will marry (instead of having a marriage arranged) and are also afforded the luxury of openly being in a relationship with a person of the gender of their choosing. Regardless of whether I prefer men or women, I choose to present myself as heterosexual publicly by the behaviours I exhibit (or don't exhibit), and similarly a man or woman also chooses the behaviours he or she engages in (in public) and accordingly the orientation they wish to be associated with in society.
I'm not saying I know what it's like to be gay...I don't. And I'm not saying gay people choose to be gay so they can be bullied, ridiculed and sometimes even risk their lives to be honest with how they feel. I'm saying it's a choice to act on the feelings you have, one which we are "afforded" in Western culture. Many of the objections to same sex marriage in that document could be applied to interracial marriages I'm sure, and as I mentioned, some of the arguments are just opinions that are not based on any sort of study or fact. We shouldn't be opposed to same sex marriage because it "threatens" the nuclear family. There is no such thing as the perfect family, we all have our own shit to deal with, such as addictions, abuse, illnesses, over protective/bearing parents, rebellious siblings...the list goes on. God calls us to be his servants and in doing so we are expected to do our best to not sin. That means struggling with sexuality (homosexual and heterosexual if we are unmarried), gluttony (eating food we do not need), greed (making money, saving money, having material possessions) and a whole plethora of crosses to bare. Maybe the Church needs a shame culture for fat people, I dunno. Maybe I'd be a size 0 instead of a size 12? (probably not)
And before moving on I want to make it clear, I'm only thinking about this in the context of members of the Christian community who have identified as or are struggling with homosexuality. If you're a non-Christian gay...who cares? Go forth, settle down, get married, have kids (or don't have kids), eat until your heart stops, be merry!
To be honest, I think our culture over-thinks marriage. We have such an intricate 'mating ritual'. First you have to find someone of your gender of preference who you "click" with. Then you have to spend time with them to figure out if they have feelings for you. Then the both of you have to go through an undefined period of time of frequently spending time together doing various activities such as watching movies, eating dinner and taking long walks on the beach. If after enough time as passed you've decided there are a few things about this person you can't stand, you realize you are not committed to them for life (or they realize this about you) so one of you dumps the other and the process starts again with a new person. OR after all this time has passed (or maybe just not enough has...) and neither of you have found a flaw in the other person you decide the next step is to get married...
My parents were introduced to each other, had an engagement party, got married 6 weeks after meeting, and they are still together 25 years later. That was one run on paragraph, compared to one short concise sentence. Just saying.
