Jun 9, 2006

Separate but Equal

Today’s Worcester Telegram has a Letter to the Editor from Christopher Mahan from Worcester applauding Allen Young’s As I See It Editorial supporting legal same sex marriage. Mr. Mahan’s logic is that to deny a person the right to marry someone of their own sex is to deny basic Civil and Constitutional Rights. That’s a rather huge bait and switch, since we never reached the point as a country or a nation that it even is a basic human right to marry whomever one wants.

Mahan adds, “It is crucial for all of us to understand that the legalization of gay marriage does not change the doctrine of the Roman Catholic Church or any other religious institution.” The Constitutional Right to same-sex marriage does not change Catholic Doctrine, it merely makes it illegal. The Massachusetts SJC has declared that teaching against same-sex marriage or refusing to hire someone who is married to a member of their sex, is racist. How long do you think it will take for the first lawsuit against a Catholic school that dismisses a teacher who is in a same-sex marriage? After that case is one, the precedent is set to take away the Church’s tax exempt status, followed by the lawsuit against a priest or Diocese for refusing the marry a same-sex couple. After all, it’s the law.

Legal same-sex marriage is incompatible with a separate but equal exemption for the Church’s doctrine, and clearly incompatible with any practice or expression of Catholic doctrine concerning the disordered nature of these acts. As we all should know, “Separate but Equal” was found unconstitutional by the Supreme Court in 1954, so it is only a matter of time before it is applied to the Church in the matter of same-sex marriage.

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