The Crux of the Debate

I was poking around the web this morning, when I stumbled across this article from Father Raymond deSouza that had appeared in the National Post in November.

The article itself doesn't say anything particularly enlightening, but its headline hit the nail on the head "Don't Drain Politics of Moral Questions".

Therein lies the root - and crux - of the same-sex marriage debate. In large part, those who oppose same-sex marriage do so on what are largely moral / religious grounds. The classic reaction of "_that's_just_wrong_" accompanied by a facial expression that suggests the speaker was just force-fed a lemon coming forth most visibly in the recent tirades by Bishop Fred Henry, and the Archbishop in Toronto.

Those who seem to be at least nominally supportive of same-sex marriage appear to have moved beyond the notion of homosexuality as a moral issue. They are looking at the current discussion as primarily a legal and ethical issue, rather than as a moral issue.

The churches continue to stand in opposition based on theology that presumes that sexual identity is a matter of personal choice, and therefore is primarily a matter of "moral fortitude". On the other side are those that recognize (implicitly or otherwise) that sexual identity is amazingly unresponsive to attempts to change it, and therefore is likely to have more subtle roots than can be explained by simple "moral choice".

As is so often the case, the two sides are shouting at each other from very different plateaus - they aren't even on the same mountain.

Recent comments by Stephen Harper trying to link same-gender marriage to legalizing polygamy simply underscore the gap. I can't even begin to imagine the correlation in Harper's mind - other than some kind of cheesy "slippery-slope" argument. Like many other random associations thrown out to justify opposition to same-gender marriages, there's no relationship with the topic at hand - not even a tenuous one. However, if you view sexual orientation purely as a matter of choice, one can start to see how the opposition feels justified in tying the issues together.

No matter what the outcome of the upcoming debate is, both sides need to recognize that the world isn't going to end. The sun will still rise in the east the next day; society isn't going to magically collapse into anarchy. Will it change? Yes - maybe not today, but it will change.

The proposed legislation - should it become law - doesn't appear to obligate the various religions to recognize same-gender couples (nor should it), it merely obligates the government to recognize those couples in the legal arenas where that recognition is demanded by the very wording of the Constitution and the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. That's a very important thing to realize here - the very protections that guarantee freedom of religion, extend to others in ways that the authors of the Charter of Rights and Freedoms couldn't have possibly imagined.

The root of all of these issues is really one of establishing boundaries. The wording of the Constitution is very broad, and deliberately inclusive. As a result, what we are really dealing with today is an open question as to what constitute reasonable limits. Does legalizing same-gender marriage cause some kind of societal harm that would justify limiting rights in that area? Clearly, there are those who argue that such is the case. Their challenge is to make a compelling argument that such is the case. ( I have yet to see any such argument made ).