Tuesday, April 21, 2009
The Politics
He who thus considers things in their first growth and origin, whether a state or anything else, will obtain the clearest view of them. In the first place there must be a union of those who cannot exist without each other; namely, of male and female, that the race may continue (and this is a union which is formed, not of deliberate purpose, but because, in common with other animals and with plants, mankind have a natural desire to leave behind them an image of themselves),
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
1 comment:
I found this in a letter to the WSJ...
In "Why Gay Marriage Matters" (op-ed, April 7), Michael Judge celebrates the Iowa Supreme Court's decision to overturn state law in order to make same-sex marriage legal. Why, he asks, would anyone now sponsor an amendment to the state constitution to define marriage as between a man and a woman?
Mr. Judge quotes the court's complaint against "the disadvantages and fears they [homosexuals] face each day due to the inability to obtain a civil marriage in Iowa." The court then enumerates the legal disadvantages, which are all real -- no sharing in health insurance, pension benefits, hospital visitation rights, etc. The point, however, is not that there are disadvantages. The question is whether the disadvantages are based on a distinction made only by convention (and therefore changeable as a matter of custom) or by one that exists in nature (and therefore normative and morally imperative). The exact same disadvantages, after all, exist for mistresses, unmarried heterosexual lovers, and polygamists. If hardship is the criterion, should not all these be enfolded into the new definition of civil marriage? After all, they too, as the court said of homosexual couples, are "a historically disfavored class of persons [excluded] from a supremely important civil institution."
Absent from the article or the court's decision is any explanation of why marriage is so important as a civil institution. Aristotle begins "The Politics" not with a single individual, but with a description of a man and a woman together in the family, without which the rest of society cannot exist. Heterosexual sex in the family is normative as a matter of nature or what is known as natural law. All other sexual relationships can only ape it, and aspire to it (which explains the homosexual desire to mimic it).
My use of Aristotle may provoke the response that some of the ancient Greeks wrote paeans to homosexual love. This is certainly true. However, it did not occur to any of them to propose homosexual relationships as the basis for marriage in their societies. Perhaps Mr. Judge and the Iowa Supreme Court should ponder on the reason why
Post a Comment