{"id":788,"date":"2013-03-18T13:32:50","date_gmt":"2013-03-18T17:32:50","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/?p=788"},"modified":"2013-03-18T13:32:50","modified_gmt":"2013-03-18T17:32:50","slug":"the-logic-of-marriage-or-the-illogic-of-gay-marriage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/attheintersectionoffaithandculture\/2013\/03\/the-logic-of-marriage-or-the-illogic-of-gay-marriage.html","title":{"rendered":"The Logic of Marriage ( Or The Illogic of “Gay Marriage”)"},"content":{"rendered":"

In response to Ohio Senator Rob Portman\u2019s recent reversal on \u201cgay marriage,\u201d House Speaker John Boehner said that, unlike his fellow partisan, he could never envision himself changing his mind on this topic.\u00a0 \u201cListen,\u201d he told Martha Raddatz on ABC\u2019s This Week, \u201cI believe<\/em> that marriage is the union of one man and one woman\u201d (emphasis added).<\/p>\n

Boehner\u2019s reasoning represents that of the opponents of \u201cgay marriage.\u201d<\/p>\n

The opponents of \u201cgay marriage\u201d invariably claim, along with Boehner, that they do not \u201cbelieve in<\/em> \u2018gay marriage,\u2019\u201d or that they do not \u201csupport<\/em>\u201d it. \u00a0Rather, they favor \u201ctraditional<\/em> marriage.\u201d\u00a0 We should most definitely not \u201credefine<\/em>\u201d marriage so as to accommodate gays, they insist.<\/p>\n

In doing so, however, the opponents of \u201cgay marriage\u201d actually reinforce <\/em>their rivals\u2019 assumption that what is real and true is determined <\/em>by what human beings happen to want.\u00a0<\/p>\n

The point that they should be making, though, is that if there really are such things as truth and reality, then we can no more believe or disbelieve in, support or condemn, \u201cgay marriage.\u201d\u00a0 There is no \u201ctraditional marriage.\u201d There is only marriage\u2014and it is beyond our capacity to either define or redefine it.<\/p>\n

Words are human inventions, but the most elementary principles of logic <\/em>are not.\u00a0 For example, if you hear that a man is a bachelor, then without seeing or knowing him, you know that he can\u2019t possibly be married at the same time.\u00a0 Similarly, if you are told that something is a green Martian, then without knowing a thing about whether Martians really exist, or what color they are if they do, you nevertheless know that this thing can\u2019t <\/em>be colorless.<\/p>\n

Words signify concepts, and concepts have their own logic independently of human whims and desires.\u00a0 I can no more believe in or support a married person\u2019s \u201cright\u201d to enter into bachelorhood while remaining married than I can believe in or support a person\u2019s \u201cright\u201d to enter into a state of celibacy while living a life of sexual promiscuity.\u00a0 Nor does it make any sense for me to claim that I favor \u201ctraditional\u201d bachelorhood or \u201ctraditional\u201d celibacy, for this implies that there are other, non-traditional forms. And I most certainly cannot weigh in on \u201credefining\u201d the terms \u201cbachelorhood\u201d and \u201ccelibacy,\u201d for this countenances the idea that it is within our power to define or redefine them.\u00a0<\/p>\n

Note, in rejecting as illogical the idea that the married and the sexually active have a \u201cright\u201d to bachelorhood and celibacy, respectively, I make no appeals to God or religion.\u00a0 For that matter, I don\u2019t even appeal to morality: ultimately, this is a question of logic, not morality.\u00a0 This, in turn, means that in denying their \u201cright\u201d to bachelorhood and celibacy, I in no way mean to insinuate that the married and the sexually active are immoral.\u00a0<\/p>\n

What is true for bachelorhood and celibacy is true for marriage.\u00a0 Homosexuality could be a blessing to humanity and every gay person the planet over could be a saint, but no matter: marriage remains an intrinsically heterosexual <\/em>concept. There isn\u2019t much upon which human beings everywhere and forever could be said to have agreed, but this is one of them.\u00a0 Repeat: conflicts over monogamy and polygamy and whether the members of different races should be permitted to marry one another, etc. are irrelevant.\u00a0 These considerations no more belong to the essence of marriage than \u201csix feet tall\u201d belongs to the essence of a human being.<\/p>\n

Marriage is essentially, intrinsically a heterosexual union.\u00a0 The world\u2019s peoples from the beginning of time have agreed upon this up until the last ten to 15 years or so when some Americans and Europeans began telling us that the human species had it wrong all along. But it isn\u2019t that marriage was heterosexual because <\/em>there was a timeless consensus on the matter.\u00a0 Rather, there was a timeless consensus that marriage was inherently heterosexual because marriage is inherently heterosexual. <\/em><\/p>\n

Whether our government decides to permit homosexuals to enter into legal unions with one another that it will then call \u201cmarriage\u201d is neither here nor there.\u00a0 My point here is something else.\u00a0<\/p>\n

To paraphrase the old saying, you can put lipstick on a pig and say it is something else, but a pig is still a pig.<\/p>\n

Similarly, call anything you want \u201cmarriage,\u201d but real marriage has always been and will always be a heterosexual institution.\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In response to Ohio Senator Rob Portman\u2019s recent reversal on \u201cgay marriage,\u201d House Speaker John Boehner said that, unlike his fellow partisan, he could never envision himself changing his mind on this topic.\u00a0 \u201cListen,\u201d he told Martha Raddatz on ABC\u2019s This Week, \u201cI believe that marriage is the union of one man and one woman\u201d…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":399,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-788","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"yoast_head":"\nThe Logic of Marriage ( Or The Illogic of "Gay Marriage")<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" 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