Posted by
TheChair on Thursday, August 21, 2008 4:23:36 AM
My friend Richard Reeb has just penned a new column entitled
God, Nature and Marriage. First, he debunks the excuse that the Bible says nothing about gay marriage. (I'm reminded of the child's game of "But you didn't say I couldn't.") It's a sad duty for Reeb as the excuse was recently embraced by Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury. Talk about someone who ought to know better. Reeb makes the point that the Bible didn't need to say anything about gay marriage because it cut off the possibility at the more basic level of condemning homosexual behavior altogether. Such is both sin against God and crossing nature.
Reeb detects wolves amidst the sheep:
Those who embrace Christianity not for its moral teaching but to exploit its emphasis on love of one’s neighbor as a rationalization for indulging the appetites which the Bible clearly condemns, have every reason to welcome theological authorities who uphold their opinions. Those who remain faithful have every reason to be alarmed at the prospect of people being deceived.
Reeb points out that the Bible and the Declaration of Independence are in harmony on the moral understanding of "nature."
But the Biblical view of marriage is grounded equally in what the Declaration of Independence referred to as “the laws of nature and of nature’s God.” While it is perfectly true that the Old Testament condemns homosexuality as an abomination in the sight of God, the New Testament goes further and calls it unnatural. In both Romans and Corinthians, Paul uses that language.
And "nature," for Reeb, includes consideration of the entire being, not as it now is merely, but as it may become. Higher happiness is found in living up to the measure of one's creation. That is only possible when we do not enslave ourselves to impulse, to fleeting passions and unmoderated urges.
The Bible’s understanding of nature strikes me as superior to the hedonistic and materialistic one for this reason: there man’s nature refers to the purposes for which he was designed. That provides a standard for conduct which places wholesome and healthy limits on appetites. The claim that the fundamental urges with which we are all endowed, are all that constitute nature fails to acknowledge the higher aspects of mankind.
There is no higher aspect of mankind than that of love for one's neighbor, and of self-sacrifice. Yet there is nothing less altruistic than the demand for homosexual marriage, a peculiar counterfeit of the real thing that offers none of its benefits (Children! Variety! Civilizing influence!) because it caters to present impulse.
Self control may not seem “natural” to some, but wise teaching and informed experience agree that man’s nature encompasses judgment, conscience and virtue and not merely appetite, desire and gratification. Whether or not any scientific evidence is ever discovered for a “gay gene,” it still remains true that we human beings have the power to make choices.