Wednesday, October 5, 2011

The Duchess of Alba Weds, and I Wonder about Faith-Based Objections to Non-Procreative Same-Sex Marriage



In a recent posting, I noted the . . . peculiar . . . insistence of Catholics who swallow the magisterial teaching that, while a marriage between a man and a woman, one or both of whom are incapable of conceiving a child, is fine and dandy, a marriage between a woman and a woman or a man and a man is morally reprehensible because, well, you know, it's not "open to life."


In my discussion of the bizarre logic at work in this analysis offered by many Catholics who still promote magisterial teaching on these issues, I pointed out that the church does, in fact, marry heterosexual couples in which one or both partners are incapable of conception.  And so the argument that same-sex couples do not deserve the right to marry because they cannot conceive is logically inconsistent, to say the least.

And in case anyone imagines I'm simply fabricating the information that heterosexual couples in which one or both partners are incapable of conception (barring a miracle) are married with nary a peep from church folks, take a look at this story about the marriage this morning of Cayetana Fitz-James Stuart, Duchess of Alba, to Alfonso Diez in Seville.

I certainly wish the new bride and groom well.  I'd also be very surprised if the faith-based groups who keep trying to bar their gay brothers and sisters from the right of marriage by arguing that same-sex marriages are incapable of conception will have their knives out for this newly married couple, as they do for same-sex couples seeking marriage.

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