Ok, recently (past several years anyway) people have been making the argument that homosexuality is a right or that under equal protection of the law its a right. Now, by homosexuality being a right they mean that they get to live life as they wish and living an active lifestyle.
Specifically, the argument is made that under equal protection homosexuals should be allowed to marry each other because hetrosexuals are allowed to marry each other. I would easily make note that any person who self-identifies themselves as homosexual has as much right or ability to marry anyone as someone who self-identifies themselves as hetrosexual. Let me clarify by saying that as a man I can't just go out and marry anyone, I have to get their consent and the consent of the governing authorities over me.
The term consent leads me away from believing that marriage is a right for anyone. A right is something that I can compel someone to allow me, something that is due to me without the permission/consent of anyone else. It would always be so that we would have to have the consent of at least one other person to get married you could never consider it a right. The other thing is that society and governing authorities make sure their is proper disposition. Legally, we make sure you aren't related and a few other facts, you pay a fee and suddenly you have a licencse to allow you to get married.
In some respects the Church's role falls into one of two lines of reasoning. 1) after being assured of proper disposition of the two involved parties they as a collection of two have a right to the sacrement. 2) after being assured of proper disposition of the two involved parties they are given the consent of the Church to be married.
The whole area of the sacrementality of marriage further makes me need to scratch my head as marriage as a sacrement dispenses grace, an unmerited gift of God from God that has to be received by the receiver. At this point my head is starting to spin when I try to put marriage into the context of being a right or not being a right. What I am thinking and trying to define is that their is something that when you meet all of the conditions that are in the order, that it is defined by the nature of the thing that you get it. Is this already defined and called something or can I make up a new word?
Under the Mercy,
Matthew S
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Philosophy, marriage, sacrement, catholic, rights, right, wedding
Tuesday, September 25, 2007
Stand up Philosophy time, your thoughts below please!
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