Interracial Marriage and Same-Sex “Marriage” « Public Discourse

A very good point. As a person living north of the US border, where the battle for marriage has been utterly lost, may I make two short points:

1. One of the errors defenders of marriage make is falling into the trap of using the term “heterosexual marriage”. Marriage is not a heterosexual institution (heterosexual being a trendy western concept); it is a biological institution — and equally accessible by all regardless of their “sexual orientation”. While the institution of marriage is open to all, not everyone is open to marriage!

2. The fundamental error in arguing for homosexual marriage (or homosexual anything) is treating homosexuality as an identity (as in, “I am a gay male”). The Bible makes it clear that homosexuality is not an immutable characteristic of personhood. Just like there are no persons who “are” thieves, or adulterers, murderers, etc. as a depiction of personhood, so with homosexuality. A conservative US Episcopal group ended a letter with an appeal “to our gay brothers and sisters in Christ”. Would they similarly write to their “pederast brothers and sisters”, or their “thief brothers and sisters”?

All this shows how language informs and potentially pollutes the argument for marriage. Christians must be careful to think and express themselves christianly.