'Gay' marriage and contraception

By Judie Brown

As our country slides deeper into a moral abyss, many stand by either gaping at these changes or passively watching them happen. Neither of these things is effective in teaching morality or the truths of the Catholic Church. To effect change, we must first understand why these things are happening. Today's commentary addresses the tumult and the immorality our society is experiencing, and we must listen well. The future of marriage, of family, and of our society depends upon us.

In view of the June 26 Supreme Court decisions on "gay" marriage, it is time for serious Catholics to examine how this perverted situation came to pass. Let's start with the use of the word "gay" and American Life League's internal style guide. At ALL, we never use the word "gay." The guide states that the word "gay" is "a euphemism intended to present a positive image of homosexual behavior and downplay its sordid nature – the sexual deviance lobby's equivalent of 'choice.'"

Dr. Joseph Nicolosi, an expert in this matter, concurs, saying that the word "gay" is a socio-political term, not a psychological condition.

In my day, when Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers were tripping the light fantastic, gay was a synonym for happiness. In fact, its primary definition means happiness.

What is happy about homosexuality?

To understand the Church's teaching on homosexuality, we can examine Pope Paul VI's renowned encyclical, Humanae Vitae, the much-maligned infallible teaching which states, in part:

It is to be anticipated that perhaps not everyone will easily accept this particular teaching. There is too much clamorous outcry against the voice of the Church, and this is intensified by modern means of communication. But it comes as no surprise to the Church that she, no less than her divine Founder, is destined to be a "sign of contradiction". . . .

In preserving intact the whole moral law of marriage, the Church is convinced that she is contributing to the creation of a truly human civilization. She urges man not to betray his personal responsibilities by putting all his faith in technical expedients. In this way she defends the dignity of husband and wife.

In other words, the preservation of the entire body of moral law includes an absolute prohibition on artificial means of preventing the procreation of children within the context of marital union.

Well, in 1968, this teaching was disparaged from the pulpit, treated with silence by most bishops, and literally ignored by Catholics privately and in public life. Contraception, the ability of man to control birth by rejecting God, became commonplace among the general population, including the majority of Catholics.

This failure to reject contraception leads to abortion. The most popular argument that proves this point is: "If my birth control fails, I need to get rid of my problem."

Planned Parenthood and its allies were at the forefront of this assault on moral law. From the beginning they wanted abortion to become the fail-safe method of "choice."

This initial rejection of the natural law led to all manner of deviation from moral law, ethics, and common sense. History bears this out. There is no debate except between those who know that Catholic teaching on this subject is infallible and those who think Catholic teaching is of no value. It is really that simple.

Father Paul Marx, one of the pro-life movement's strongest leaders, and one of the few in our ranks to have visited more than 30 countries, told us years ago:

In every nation, bar none, contraception has led to abortion – and from abortion to infanticide, the prelude to full-blown euthanasia! Once the purposes of sex are torn loose from procreation and the family, the homosexual thrust rears its ugly head, teen pregnancies and abortions sky-rocket, VD burgeons out of control, the divorce rate escalates, the birthrate falls, while the barnyard approach to birth control called sterilization becomes commonplace. Soon we see the swift disintegration of the family.

At this point in our history as a nation, and particularly as Catholics, we should be able to see clearly, based on what has already transpired in the culture and the law, that Wednesday's Supreme Court decisions are not really a surprise at all. In fact, they represent a natural progression in man's desire to denigrate the natural law, distort it, and otherwise trample on truth in deference to politically popular buzzwords such as "freedom of choice" or "personal rights."

It is at the same time a challenge to each of us to engage members of society through teaching truth and doing all we can to restore a culture of life. Nothing short of this will ever be effective in stemming this tide of indescribable evil.

© Judie Brown