Up, Down and All Around

Law and Morality

The other night, my Thursday group got together for our first weekly meeting of the year.

For one reason or another, the discussion turned to homosexuality, the legalization of same-sex marriages, and the question as to whether the law should be expected to enforce morality.

Some people feel that the law should be used to enforce morality and therefore should never allow same-sex marriages. Other people feel that the law should be independent of religion (i.e., separation of church and state) and that the primary purpose of the law is to maintain order. Murder is considered illegal because murderers disrupt the order of society. The same cannot always be said of same-sex marriages (although some people would disagree).

Homosexuality as an issue has long confused me because on the one hand, Christian doctrine explicitly say that homosexuality is immoral, and I do consider myself a Christian. On the other hand, I have gay friends and when we're together socially, I do not think of them as homosexuals; rather, I think of them as individuals. They're not a label or a category to me -- they're simply people that I care about.

So when the topic of same-sex marriages came up in the discussion, I once again had mixed feelings. The legal concept of Marriage entitles a couple to many, practical things -- joint child custody, conjugal property, and legal benefits just to name a few. These are rights and privileges that same-sex couples would be deprived of if they were not legally married.

From a purely intellectual standpoint, therefore, I do find myself favoring the legalization of same-sex marriages even though I firmly believe from a religious standpoint that a same-sex couple is engaged in something that is immoral. My opinion is therefore tenuous at best, and I have no doubt that I will find myself flip-flopping on this issue each time it comes up.

Ayayaay... what a tangled web we weave.

Tags: Personal, Religion

Posted by CF at 4:30 PM