By JOHN YOUNG
The consequences of the acceptance of homosexual behavior are rightly emphasized, including the devaluation of marriage, the effects on children adopted by homosexuals, the threat to civil liberties. But there is something more fundamental: Homosexual behavior is intrinsically unnatural.
That statement should be evident, but in our present-day Western society many reject it. I’ll come back to that phenomenon.
Man and woman complement each other, physically, emotionally, spiritually. This is clearly ordered by nature to procreation: On the biological level that cannot be denied. Two men or two women can’t conceive a child. But it should be clear also that the emotional and spiritual qualities of each parent contribute in their own way to the development of the child’s personality.
Further, the complementary character of a man and a woman make possible a unique kind of love: a love that is impossible for two men or two women. This results in a unity of persons ordered to a lifelong companionship, which develops the personality of each partner and ensures to the children of their union a harmonious and well-rounded development in a secure relationship.
The word procreation points to the sublime dignity of marriage. It is pro-creation: cooperation with God in the creation of a unique person, a person destined to live forever. St. Augustine speaks of the parents generating “citizens for Heaven.”
It would be hard to exaggerate the sublimity and beauty of marriage, even when viewed only from the aspect of the natural order; but it is immeasurably greater if seen in the light of divine Revelation, for marriage was elevated by Christ to a still higher dignity when He made it a sacrament.
A comparison of this with homosexual unions shows how profoundly unnatural they are. Two men or two women cannot complement each other in the way that a man and woman can; they can’t procreate — their relationship is essentially barren in regard to offspring; any emotional union between them is at best a mimic of the love of a man and a woman for each other.
The corruption of the best is the worst. This follows from the classical definition of evil as “privation of good.” So, in the physical order, if I break a fingernail I have suffered a minor evil, but if I break a finger that is a much greater evil, for it is the deprivation of a greater good. Or in the moral order, if I steal ten dollars I have done something evil; but if (in similar circumstances) I steal ten thousand dollars, that is a greater evil, for it is the deprivation of a greater good.
In the subject we are discussing, the love of a man and a woman ordered to marriage, with its lifelong character and the procreation of children, is a very great good. So the parody of this state in homosexual relationships is very evil. If marriage were a lesser good than it is, homosexual relationships would be less bad than they are.
The above considerations help explain the rage of homosexual activists against their critics. Homosexual behavior is a radically unnatural perversion of a very good thing — the union of a man and a woman in marriage. And this is not just a matter of religion; marriage belongs to the natural order, and perversions of it are against the natural moral law.
St. Paul describes how rejection of the true God in favor of idolatry led pagans into this vice.
They “exchanged the glory of the immortal God for images resembling mortal man or birds or animals and reptiles….For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. Their women exchanged natural relations for unnatural, and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameful acts with men and receiving in their own persons the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:23-27).
Deep down, active homosexuals sense that their behavior is profoundly unnatural, for the natural moral law is, as St. Paul says, written in the heart (Romans 2:15). Having committed themselves to a homosexual lifestyle, they must suppress the voice of reason and delude themselves with the fantasy that their behavior is normal. The maintenance of this delusion is reinforced if large numbers of heterosexual people support it and the civil law endorses it.
Conversely, if the truth about homosexual behavior is told this constitutes an attack on the defense barriers the homosexual is desperate to maintain. So all criticism has to be crushed. All available means must be utilized to this end, including the media and the law.
Only a very small proportion of the population is homosexual, and many of those resist their urges. How, then, has society arrived at the point where freedom to express the obvious truth about human sexuality is under siege? Worse, in many places those who tell the truth and act according to conscience are in danger of prison.
This situation has come about because a large percentage of the population has lost all appreciation of what human sexuality is about. The outline I gave above is seen by many as unreal, even nonsense. Sex has been separated from marriage, particularly through the use of contraceptives, and is seen in terms of pleasure alone.
The widespread addiction to pornography is one result; surveys have shown that a significant percentage of men regularly access pornography on the Internet. This vice so corrupts a healthy outlook that those gripped by it can no longer see the truth about sexuality.
So what can we do? The goal must be to show the true nature of sex and marriage. If this can be done the aberrations will be obvious. Pope Francis is taking this approach in his homilies on marriage. But it is difficult to get this message through to our materialistic society.
The evil effects of the homosexual agenda are becoming clearer, and these should be emphasized. Basic human freedoms are being crushed, to such a degree that the mere expression of the truth is treated as a crime. The adoption of children by same-sex couples means that these unfortunate children are deprived of either a mother or a father. The well-documented instability of homosexual unions results in trauma and confusion in the children as one homosexual “partner” is replaced by another.
The tragic effects, physical and emotional, on those who engage in this lifestyle must be pointed out. Also, the injustice of laws in Washington, D.C., and other places which forbid psychologists and counselors helping people overcome their homosexual tendencies.
An awareness of the profoundly unnatural character of homosexual behavior is not only necessary if the frenzied drive for acceptance by militant homosexuals is to be clearly understood. That awareness should also deepen our sympathy for the unfortunate men and women afflicted in this way.
Many wish they were free of their burden. And those who embrace that evil lifestyle deserve even greater pity, because every sin harms the sinner, and the greater the sin the greater the harm.
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