Saturday, August 16, 2003

Gardner making sense on gay marriage

He went about it in a round about way, but J. Francis Gardner, a local conservative columnist for the E-N, makes sense today when he addresses most of the gay rights issues that have been hot topics of late.
Gardner skirts the Supreme Court's Lawrence vs. Texas decision which struck down the state's abhorent anti-sodomy law. But he comes down in favor of allowing gay bishops in the church and proposes a middle ground on gay marriage similar to the civil unions that are now the law of Vermont.
I don't necessarily agree as Gardner states that the Bible makes it "crystal clear" that homosexuality is an abomination. No more clear than the abomination of eating pork. But Gardner does concede that even if the Bible treats homosexuality as a sin, it is not any more or less worse than any other sin so why single out one group of sinners for special mistreatment. I believe that there is a biological component to sexual preferences and so it is not fair to treat it as a choice that someone makes any more than someone chooses whether they are right-handed or left-handed.
Gardner states that any disconnect between human sexuality and reproductive potential is considered a flaw in nature's (God's) grand design. But what if it is not a flaw, but just another aspect of the design?
It would seem that a mature society should eventually come to grips with this possibility and quit ostracizing an entire segment of our society. Perhaps that time is finally coming for the U.S.

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