[Vision2020] Gay marriage...... an oxymoron......

[Michael]

Nolan Writes:

 

> Here's my perspective: marriage is a covenant in which two individuals 

>are joined together, forming one flesh, a single entity. In normal 

>circumstnces this unity become evident when the husband and the wife 

>literally combine to form one flesh: a child. In a gay marriage, there 

>can be no child, therefore there can be no marriage. This is of course 

>excluding extenuating circumstances involving infertility, etc. My 

>point is that gay marriage is really an oxymoron. A gay couple cannot 

>form one flesh, they cannot reproduce; nor were they designed to.

 

Me:

 

What ground do you have to describe a marriage as inherently covenantal? To
what are you appealing here?  Do you think that 'one flesh' has historically
referenced the 'child' or rather the over all communion (including sexual
intimacy) between man and woman?  I'm truly curious here.  Of course, you
don't want to say marriage depends on the ability to produce a baby, since
many unions you would call marriages cannot (e.g. infertility); but perhaps
you meant to qualify this by "normal circumstances": but what is a "normal"
circumstance?  Your point about 'oxymoron' is good: I'm not sure we can
easily analyze 'man & woman' out of our concept of 'marriage' all that
easily.  This is more an argument for correct word use than it is morality
however.  Your only clear moral argument that gains traction is the claim
that a gay couple are not 'designed' to form one flesh or reproduce.  But
you need to explain what precisely you mean by this and what your
justification for this claim is (i.e. natural law?  divine revelation? Nolan
intuition? tradition?)

 

Thanks

Michael Metzler 

 

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