The Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) defines marriage as a "legal union between one man and one woman for purposes of all federal laws, and provides that states need not recognize a marriage from another state if it is between persons of the same sex." Thirty-nine states have passed legislation and constitutional amendments to protect marriage as the union between one man and one woman. Thirty-five Catholic lawmakers are not backing DOMA; these same lawmakers have a track record of pro-abortion, anti-family voting... One Nation Under God
Catholic Femina Speaks: Is DOMA Catholic? When I first hear about amending the constitution to define "marriage," I thought this was a good thing... After giving it some more thought, I came to the conclusion that this was not to beneficial for several reasons.
First: As a Catholic I do not recognize marriages by the state, only sacramental marriages. Federal rulings on marriage is taking from the Church to give to the state, and I am opposed taking Church power.
First: As a Catholic I do not recognize marriages by the state, only sacramental marriages. Federal rulings on marriage is taking from the Church to give to the state, and I am opposed taking Church power.
Second: Once the government has the power to define marriage, they can redefine marriage to be anything that they want. It is much easier to change existing legislature rather than introduce new stuff.
Third:I know that it is difficult for people to comprehend, but marriage is not a tangible entity, it is a spiritual bond between spouses, only the married couple by their expressed sacrifice of self in marriage validates a marriage not the state. Thus, defining marriage to mean a union between X and Y is pointless because the state cannot know the intentions of the persons involved to validate the marriage.
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I've blogged about marriage a lot, not in Catholic terms, but in terms of public policy. all you have to do is acknowledge the strain and stresses of a mother, who is not in a healthy relationship with the father of her children to understand what marriage laws, as public policy, need to address and promote.
ReplyDeleteHeterosexual activity (not mere orientation) by nature considers that a woman may get pregnant and have a child, while there maybe many valid positive concerns in other relationships (friendship, support, and reliance) friendships and non-hetero non-sexual activity never creates an obligation to a third party, a child.
This gets distorted though, with egg/sperm donation and surrogacy, even yes, adoption.