What lurks at the murky bottom of this new (since it began with John Paul II) gender-complementarity argument about [the] divine “order” and “nature” [of marriage] is precisely the thing that Judge Walker [in his ruling that overturned Prop 8] wanted to point out about most arguments for traditional marriage: they rest on the insupportable belief that there is something inherently fixed and unchangeable about gender roles due to the biological difference in the sexes. The gender–complementarity argument seeks to find a way around the obvious fact that we accept the marriage of a non-procreative man and a woman as a real and “traditional” marriage, while we kick and scream against the thought of two people of the same gender marrying because, we claim, they cannot procreate.
It wants to move around that marriage–is–for–procreation argument because marriage is clearly not for procreation if we permit a man and a woman who cannot or will not have children to marry. The justification for traditional marriage grounded in John Paul II’s theology of the body imagines that it has discovered an irrefutable argument to counter those who, like Judge Walker, note that marriage, as a social institution, has moved away from state-decreed gender roles, and that marriage as it now exists has long since departed from the notion that the two spouses must agree to play the role of mutually opposing opposites, each with an assigned task. Because one is male and one is female.
– William Lindsey
"Ross Douthat on the Ideal of Marriage:
Male-Female Complimentarity and 'the Order of Creation'"
The Open Tabernacle
August 9, 2010
"Ross Douthat on the Ideal of Marriage:
Male-Female Complimentarity and 'the Order of Creation'"
The Open Tabernacle
August 9, 2010
Recommended Off-site Link:
The Theology of the Body and Patriarchy's Agenda: Assuring Heterosexual Male Dominance - William Lindsey (The Open Tabernacle, August 10, 2010).
See also the previous Wild Reed posts:
Nathanial Frank on the Natural Law Argument Against Same-Sex Marriage
Patrick Ryan on the "Defense of Traditional Marriage" Argument
Stop in the Name of Discriminatory Ideology!
The Many Manifestations of God's Loving Embrace
Dialoguing with the Archbishop on Natural Law
The Standard for Sexual Ethics: Human Flourishing, Not Openness to Procreation
For more on Natural Law theory, see The Wild Reed series, “Perspectives on Natural Law,” featuring the insights of:
Herbert McCabe, OP
Judith Web Kay
Daniel Helminiak
Garry Wills
Gregory Baum
William C. McDonough
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