Speaking on same-sex marriage

Re: Piece of Mind, July 4, “Is silence after high court’s ruling a sign of evolving times?”

Last week Carol Cormaci pondered why no letters regarding the Supreme Court decisions (re: gay marriage) had been sent to the paper and concluded that she hoped “the dearth of response ... reflects acceptance of the truth that there simply cannot be a subclass of Americans that are not allowed to enjoy the same status as everyone else.” This is the default narrative that basically believes the state’s interest in marriage is no more, or less, than, say, a driver’s license.

For those who believe the state’s interest is something more profound and important, on July 5 Pope Francis I issued his first papal Encyclical: Lumen Fidei (the light of faith). The section on faith and family:

“In Abraham’s journey towards the future city, the Letter to the Hebrews mentions the blessing was passed on from fathers to sons. The first setting in which faith enlightens the human city is the family. I think first and foremost of the love of the stable union of man and women in marriage. This union is born of their love, as a sign and presence of God’s own love, and of the acknowledgment and acceptance of the goodness of sexual differentiation whereby spouses can become one flesh and are enabled to give birth to a new life, a manifestation of the Creator’s goodness, wisdom and loving plan. Grounded in this love, a man and woman can promise each other mutual love in a gesture which engages their lives and mirrors many features of faith. Promising love forever is possible when we perceive a plan bigger than our own ideas and undertakings, a plan which sustains us and enables us to grasp in all its depth and richness the begetting of children, as a sign of the love of the Creator who entrusts us with the mystery of a new person. So it was that Sarah, by faith, became a mother, for she trusted in God’s fidelity to his promise.”

Sexual differentiation, and thus marriage, has long been under attack, most loudly by feminists who argue that it is a cultural construct by males to oppress women, now by proponents of same-sex marriage who deny that mothers and fathers are the ideal. Well, we are now at a place where 40% of all births are out of wedlock, who thinks this will end well?

Kent Schmidt
La Cañada Flintridge