Aggressive Secularism* and Future of Marriage^

Aggressive Secularism* and the Future of Marriage^
In pursuit of the truth - cinops be gone - Thursday, Oct. 25, 2012

By George Weigel - excerpts of essays syndicated by the Denver Catholic Register

*“Canadian philosopher Charles Taylor was raising a warning flag about an aggressive and hegemonic cast of mind that seeks to drive out of the public square any consideration of what God or the moral law might require of a just society.

“Aggressive secularism was once thought to be a primarily European malady. Then it migrated to Canada. Now it has become a serious problem in American public life. Catholics can do something about that, if they understand what the Church asks of “the world.”

“… the Church demands - two things of any political community and any society. The Church asks for free space to be itself: to evangelize, to celebrate the sacraments, and to do the works of education, charity, mercy, and justice, without undue interference from government. The Church freely concedes that the state can tell the Church to do some things: to obey local sanitary laws in church kitchens hosting pancake breakfasts, for example. But the Church refuses to concede to the sate the authority to tell the Church what to think and preach, or how to order its ministerial life and serve the needy.

“Moreover, the Church asks, and if necessary demands, that the state respect the sanctuary of conscience, so that the Church’s people are not required by law to do things the Church teaches as immoral…“Over the past four years, the federal government has made unprecedented efforts to erode religious freedom.”

“The gravest assault was the “contraceptive mandate” issue earlier this year by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services: an offense to conscientious Catholic employers who believe what the Church believes about the morality of human love and the ethics of the right to life… For with the HHS mandate, the federal government seeks nothing less than to turn the Catholic Church’s charitable and medical facilities into state agencies that facilitate practices the Catholic Church believes are gravely evil…

^“The very idea of “marriage” is being contested on four state ballots, and in the national election, on Nov. 6th… Because God himself is thus the author, marriage is of its very nature a holy institution, requiring of those who enter it a complete and unreserved giving of self…

“It’s impossible to imagine a Catholic priest pronouncing those words “No greater blessing can come to your married life than pure conjugal love, loyal and true to the end…” at a gay “wedding.” And that impossibility illustrates several Catholic theological objections to the notion that same-sex couples can “marry.”

“Gay marriage” is opposed to the divine order built into creation and to the Gospel: for “gay marriage,” which by definition involves grave sin, cannot be an image of Christ’s spousal love for the Church. Thus Catholics who support “gay marriage” are deeply confused about both Word and Sacrament, the twin pillars of Catholic life.

“In public policy terms, the Catholic critique of “gay marriage” reflects the Catholic idea of the just state. Rightly understood, marriage is one of those social institutions that exist “prior” to the state: prior in terms of time (marriage existed before the state), prior in terms of the deep truths embedded in the human condition. A just state thus recognizes the giveness of marriage and seeks to protect and nurture this basic institution…

“Why not one man and two women? Two women and two men? These are not paranoid fantasies; the case for polyndra and polygamy is now being mounted in prestigious law journals… Conscientious voters will keep this - and the Democratic Party platform’s endorsement of “gay marriage” in mind on November 6.” +++ George H. Kubeck +++