{"id":5537,"date":"2016-09-15T12:52:04","date_gmt":"2016-09-15T16:52:04","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/admin.patheos.com\/blogs\/scottericalt\/?p=5537"},"modified":"2018-03-10T20:34:03","modified_gmt":"2018-03-11T00:34:03","slug":"to-accept-same-sex-marriage-is-heresy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scottericalt\/to-accept-same-sex-marriage-is-heresy\/","title":{"rendered":"Marriage is Defined by God. To Accept Same-Sex Marriage is Heresy."},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><\/p>\n<style>\nH1, H2, H5, H6 {font-family: vollkorn; font-weight: normal;&rdquo;}\nH4 {font-weight: normal;}\np, li {color: #292e37; line-height: 1.1em; font-size: 95%; text-align: justify;}\nblockquote p {margin-left: 45px;&rdquo;}\nli {margin-bottom: 10px;}\na {color: #aa1111 !important; border: none !important; Font-weight: normal !important;}\n<\/style>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5542\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5542\" style=\"width: 600px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/scottericalt\/to-accept-same-sex-marriage-is-heresy\/moses-by-rembrandt\/\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-5542\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\"><img decoding=\"async\" style=\"border:1px solid #292e37;padding:3px;\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/668\/2016\/09\/Moses-by-Rembrandt.jpg\" alt=\"heresy\" width=\"100%\" height=\"100%\" class=\"size-full wp-image-5542\"><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5542\" class=\"wp-caption-text\"><p style=\"Font-style: normal;text-align:center;margin-top:-15px;\">Rembrandt, \u201cMoses Breaking the Tablets of the Law,\u201d 1659<\/p>\n<p><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p><p style=\"Line-height: 1.1em; font-size: 95%; text-align: justify; margin-bottom: 30px;\"><span style=\"float:left;color:#292e37;font-size:175px;line-height: 100px;padding-top:0px;padding-right:3px;\">T<\/span>o begin, I should state how the Catholic Church defines heresy. You can find the definition in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ENG1104\/_P2H.HTM\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Canon 751<\/a> as well as the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/archive\/ccc_css\/archive\/catechism\/p3s2c1a1.htm#2089\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Catechism of the Catholic Church<\/a> \u00a72089. So here it is:<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed <strong>by divine and Catholic faith<\/strong>.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Not just \u201cCatholic\u201d faith, but \u201cdivine\u201d faith too. Canon 750 tells us what sorts of things constitute \u201cdivine and Catholic faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>A person must believe with divine <strong>and<\/strong> Catholic faith <strong>all those things contained in the word of God, written or handed on<\/strong>, that is, in the one deposit of faith entrusted to the Church and at the same time proposed as divinely revealed either by the solemn magisterium of the Church or by its ordinary and universal magisterium.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>These divine truths require \u201ccommon adherence.\u201d \u201cAll are bound,\u201d the canon says, \u201cto avoid any doctrines whatsoever contrary to them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">So a heresy involves more than just a denial of what the <em>Church<\/em> proposes to be true. To speak heresy, one must also deny what God has revealed to be true.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">But has the definition of marriage\u2014one man and one woman\u2014been revealed by God?<\/p>\n<p>***<\/p>\n<p>Canon lawyer Edward N. Peters argues that it has. In the wake of the SCOTUS decision in <em>Obergefell v. Hodges<\/em>, Dr. Peters <a href=\"https:\/\/canonlawblog.wordpress.com\/2015\/07\/02\/obergefell-and-canonical-criminal-law\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">wrote these words on his canon law blog<\/a>.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>If, as seems likely, Church teaching that marriage can exist only between a man and woman is taught not just infallibly (as a \u2018secondary object\u2019 of infallibility) but as being divinely revealed (making it a \u2018primary object\u2019 of infallibility), then, <strong>a Catholic\u2019s obstinate denial of such a truth is canonically \u201cheresy\u201d (Canon 751) punishable by excommunication (Canon 1364 \u00a7 1)<\/strong>, an automatic one at that\u2014and is not just \u2018opposition to Church teaching\u2019 punishable by a \u2018just penalty\u2019.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">The biblical basis for the argument is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Matthew+19&amp;version=KJV\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Matt. 19:4<\/a>. The Pharisees asked Christ whether it were lawful for a man to divorce his wife \u201cfor every cause.\u201d Christ in turn asked them, \u201cHave ye not read, that he which made them at the beginning <strong>made them male and female<\/strong>?\u201d In this verse, Christ is quoting <a href=\"https:\/\/www.biblegateway.com\/passage\/?search=Genesis+1%3A27&amp;version=RSVCE\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Gen. 1:27<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">In order to deny that Church teaching on this matter is a point of divine revelation, one would have to deny either or both of two things:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>that the words of Christ in Matt. 19:4 do not count as divine revelation;<\/li>\n<li>that Matt. 19:4 does not apply to the question of same-sex marriage.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p style=\"Line-height; 1.1em;\">I do not see how one could sustain either claim.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">1. Since Christ is God, what he teaches is, by definition, divine revelation.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">2. To claim that, though Christ is answering a question about divorce, he is not stating a principle that applies to <em>any<\/em> question about marriage, is to be arbitrary and unnecessarily limiting.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">Every time the Church speaks about same-sex marriage\u2014every time\u2014it grounds its objection in Gen. 1:27 and Matt. 19:4.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/www.vatican.va\/roman_curia\/congregations\/cfaith\/documents\/rc_con_cfaith_doc_20030731_homosexual-unions_en.html\" class=\" decorated-link\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\">Here, for example<\/a> is how the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith discusses the point. The title of the document is \u201cConsiderations Regarding Proposals to Give Legal Recognition to Unions Between Homosexual Persons.\u201d (And yes, that includes civil law too.)<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>The natural truth about marriage was <strong>confirmed by the Revelation<\/strong> contained in the biblical accounts of creation, an expression also of the original human wisdom, in which the voice of nature itself is heard.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">This is a natural law argument, but not just a natural law argument. The CDF says that the truth is \u201cconfirmed by Revelation.\u201d It is \u201cin the biblical accounts.\u201d Those who complain about the Church\u2019s reliance on natural law will need to note this. The Church does not start with natural law and stop there.<\/p>\n<blockquote>\n<p>There are three fundamental elements of the Creator\u2019s plan for marriage, as narrated in the Book of Genesis.<\/p>\n<p>In the first place, man, the image of God, <strong>was created \u201cmale and female\u201d (Gen. 1:27)<\/strong>. Men and women are equal as persons and complementary as male and female. Sexuality is something that pertains to the physical-biological realm and has also been raised to a new level\u2014the personal level\u2014where nature and spirit are united.<\/p>\n<p>Marriage is <strong>instituted by the Creator<\/strong> as a form of life in which a communion of persons is realized involving the use of the sexual faculty. \u201cThat is why a man leaves his father and mother and clings to his wife and they become one flesh\u201d (Gen. 2:24).<\/p>\n<p>Third, God has willed to give <strong>the union of man and woman<\/strong> a special participation in his work of creation. Thus, he blessed the man and the woman with the words \u201cBe fruitful and multiply\u201d (Gen. 1:28). Therefore, <strong>in the Creator\u2019s plan<\/strong>, sexual complementarity and fruitfulness belong to the very nature of marriage.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">The CDF, like Christ, says that the creation of human beings \u201cmale and female\u201d was part of God\u2019s design for marriage, and it calls this <em>a point of revelation<\/em>. It is not just something the Church proposes; nor is it natural law alone. It is also a truth revealed by God.<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-indent: 30px;\">That would put denial of this truth into the category of a heresy.<\/p>\n<h6>***<\/h6>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>To begin, I should state how the Catholic Church defines heresy. You can find the definition in Canon 751 as well as the Catechism of the Catholic Church \u00a72089. So here it is: Heresy is the obstinate denial or obstinate doubt after the reception of baptism of some truth which is to be believed by [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2705,"featured_media":5542,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,79,67],"tags":[300,128,301,299],"class_list":["post-5537","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-biblical-exegesis","category-marriage-and-family","category-same-sex-marriage","tag-canon-law","tag-catechism-of-the-catholic-church","tag-edward-n-peters","tag-heresy"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Marriage is Defined by God. 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