MARRIAGE: Here's an oxymoron

The ancient legal code of Rome stated, “marriages are the union of male and female, a sharing of life and the communication of divine and human rights.” Roman society, considered pagan by modern standards, nevertheless recognized that marriage was a unique institution, and only between a man and woman, based on concepts of the natural law.

Now our culture is in a constant state of denial of the natural law, that is, of the notion that there is an objective moral order to which we are all bound, universal in nature and discoverable by reason. Everyone will admit there are physical laws of nature to which we are all bound. But there are also objective moral laws to which we are also equally bound.

The natural law has served as the foundation of law for all great nations. Its most basic precept is to do good and to avoid evil. Because the natural law reflects a moral good for all of us, it binds all of us, and laws of morality based upon it have been imposed on individuals for centuries.

Marriage is a natural institution because it is the very basis of society, whereby children are generated under the protection and guidance of father and mother. Reason shows that a father and mother are necessary for parenthood, and this fact is found through all the species of nature.

Homosexuals now want the right to become legally “married” and to adopt children, since by nature, they cannot conceive of children in a “natural way.” But this is a direct assault on the institution of traditional marriage, because it flatly rejects the natural law, which has established the institution by which children are conceived and reared. If we accept homosexual marriages, what will prevent us from recognizing polygamy, and even bestiality as legitimate “marriages?” Once the civil code of law rejects the natural law, our legal system as well as our culture degenerate into irrationality.

THOMAS DeTAR, M.D.

Post Falls