Reasons Not to Succumb to the Gay & Lesbian Marriage Tidal Wave

Who wants to be a troglodyte, insensitive, intolerant, a bigot? That’s the label you are wearing these days if you oppose gay and lesbian marriage. Let everyone make their own choices is the public mantra.

Here are reasons to stay the course. You’ll notice I haven’t included scriptural reasons…intentionally.

The great majority of people of faith who oppose gay and lesbian marriage also oppose persecution of gays and lesbians, respecting and loving them while disagreeing with their lifestyles. People of faith are called to heroic love and mercy, but they need not endorse behavior and choices.

Yes, there are traditional marriages where the masculine and feminine “gifts” are poorly modeled—sometimes horribly modeled—but traditional marriage is still the only institution where children can experience each of these unique gifts in a deeply personal way.

If gay and lesbian marriages are accepted and legal, on what basis can polygamy, polyandry, or any other combination of willing people, be excluded from the right to marry? In the wake of the 2013 Supreme Court decision on gay marriage, one federal judge has already relaxed prohibitions against polygamy.

Every human being is attracted to something they shouldn’t do. Growth, happiness, maturity, transformation depend on discerning the attractions you should not succumb to, as well as those attractions you may pursue.

If gay and lesbian marriages are accepted—if marriage between one man and one woman is no longer special—why shouldn’t cohabitating adults be entitled to the benefits that married people enjoy?

Even when a man and woman can’t produce children, they are still configured to produce children. Gay and lesbian marriages, by definition, are incapable of producing children without resorting to extraordinary means. Though marriage has been re-defined in recent decades to be about pleasure, choices, and convenience, receptivity to new children, in the context of the loving embrace of a man and woman, should be a paramount goal of marriage. Nonetheless, children adopted by gay and lesbian couples, or conceived by extraordinary means, are as precious as any child conceived in a loving one man-one woman marriage.

Once civil marriage is embraced as a right for gays and lesbians, there will next be a determined push to coerce, if not force, religious institutions to accept and perform these marriages. Count on it, as religious institutions and companies owned by people of faith are now being forced to accept medical procedures contrary to their beliefs.

The gay and lesbian lifestyle has historically been promiscuous (per the dictionary definition of this word), and so celebrated by many in the gay and lesbian community. Not every gay and lesbian subscribes to this lifestyle, but promiscuous lifestyles, whether homosexual or heterosexual, are unhealthy, and often predatory.

Few responsible voices, including liberal voices, supported gay and lesbian marriage before 1980. There were good reasons for this then…and now.

Living and advocating a virtuous life has always (yes, always) relegated a person to the minority. There have been periods in history, and even in today’s world, where slavery, abortion, the absolute power of kings, duels to avenge honor, torture to extract confessions, the subjugation of women, a belief that some races are subhuman, even human sacrifice, have been accepted and embraced by societies and cultures. The majority is often wrong.

In this matter, as in all matters, we should accentuate the true, the good, and the beautiful, rather than criticize and condemn. The truth is that marriage between one loving man and one loving woman is good, and that children from this marriage, whether conceived by these two, or adopted, are beautiful.

Those things which are true, good, and beautiful, are often difficult for human beings to accept, as they can be demanding and contrary to our concupiscence. With generous spirits, we must hold fast to the true, the good, and the beautiful, and proclaim them cheerfully.