"My religion has, compels me--and I love it for it--to be against discrimination of any kind in our country, and I consider this a form of discrimination."
U.S. Representative Nancy Pelosi (D-Ca), states that it is because of discrimination that she, as a "c"atholic, has to support same-sex marriage. Well, in 2003 the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith released a letter stating the Church's 2000 year policy of what marriage is and why it won't recognize same-sex marriages. It said in part:
"The Church's teaching on marriage and on the complementarity of the sexes reiterates a truth that is evident to right reason and recognized as such by all the major cultures of the world. Marriage is not just any relationship between human beings. It was established by the Creator with its own nature, essential properties and purpose. No ideology can erase from the human spirit the certainty that marriage exists solely between a man and a woman, who by mutual personal gift, proper and exclusive to themselves, tend toward the communion of their persons. In this way, they mutually perfect each other, in order to cooperate with God in the procreation and upbringing of new human lives."
In other words, God made us male and female; only men and women cooperating in marital love together can truly become one flesh, and only marital unions further God's purpose of creating new life that is welcomed, loved, nurtured and educated by both mother and father. Is this too radical an idea? I mean, come on! If in fact you are a Catholic, Mrs. Pelosi, then can we agree that there is a powerful and almighty God that created both sexes in His image and to be His children? If we can agree on that first, then the next question should be the easiest one: Why did God discriminate and make two different sexes???
Think about it. Right from the beginning, God discriminates. I'm not talking about hateful discrimination that the secular world and the media like to portray as the only form of discrimination there is but, I speak of just and merciful, indeed perfect, discrimination. Let me explain.
First, let's define discrimination. Merriam-Webster's Online Dictionary states that the root word discriminate, is defined as:
"To mark or perceive the distinguishing or peculiar features of; to distinguish by discerning or exposing differences; to distinguish from another like object; to make a distinction; to use good judgment; to make a difference in treatment or favor on a basis other than individual merit."
Look really good at that definition and you'll note that each action of creation is an act of discrimination, as Peter Kreeft notes:
"In the book of Genesis not all discrimination and differentiation is between good and evil, God introduces distinctions into creation, including the distinction between male and female, for good...light from darkness, living, animal from plant, birds from fish, one species from another, man generically from animal and, male from female."
Additionally, God could've chosen ANY ethnic group to be His chosen people but, he chose the Israelites. He continued to discriminate even within the Israelite community by chosing one tribe, the tribe of Levi, above the other tribes to be His priests. Is it fair that the Isrealites were chosen above the pagans? Is it fair that the Levites were the only tribe to be deemed worthy to serve in the Temple? Is it fair that God treated different things differently? When it comes to marriage, God ordained it to be man and woman. To challenge this notion is to challenge God's intent within creation, as CCC# 369-373 readily affirms, God made man and woman because He willed it so and, "the respective 'perfections' of man and woman reflect something of the infinite perfection of God: those of a mother and those of a father and husband," also, "God created man and woman together and willed each for the other."
These are VERY IMPORTANT CONCEPTS for any Catholic to understand! They underscore not only the amazingness of our loving God but they also affirm that it is by the will of the One true God that man and woman are made and it is His will that they are made for one another by virtue of their distinctiveness. CCC #372 is most telling:
Man and woman were made "for each other" - not that God left them half-made and incomplete: he created them to be a communion of persons, in which each can be "helpmate" to the other, for they are equal as persons ("bone of my bones. . .") and complementary as masculine and feminine. In marriage God unites them in such a way that, by forming "one flesh", they can transmit human life: "Be fruitful and multiply, and fill the earth." By transmitting human life to their descendants, man and woman as spouses and parents co-operate in a unique way in the Creator's work.
Take notice at how God, by creating life, transmits life through the creation enacted by His will! This simple yet fundamental fact can thus be extended to different facets of human life, especially, that of contraception which by its very nature is designed to impede and block God's plan to transmit life. This can also extend into abortion and (getting back to the subject at hand), same-sex unions. The Catholic Church isn't against homosexuals, it is against anything that runs contrary to the will of God. Period.
So, I'll ask the same question I posed at the begining of this post but, this time, to all "c"atholics: can we still agree that that there is a powerful and almighty God that created both sexes in His image and to be His children? If so, then the issue of same-sex marriage has a Catholic answer and, that answer is, "no." Any Catholic who states otherwise is gravely mistaken.
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