From the Editor: A Second Option for Gays

While we wish for gay men and women to remain celibate, we can't forget about a second option sanctioned by the Church.

It’s a crazy world. In the short time since our last issue, a French court ruled that marriage has nothing to do with virginity. A panel of California judges decided that, actually, marriage has nothing to do with gender either. Both rulings present issues for Christianity whose Scriptures argue vehemently otherwise on both points.

But as California re-writes the societal notion of “marriage” to include gays, the question we can’t lose sight of is how to meet the pastoral challenge of including gay people in the Church.

ASJ has used The Loyal Lion before to express our wish, which is the wish of the Church that those who find themselves with a same-sex attraction understand their situation as a call to live celibacy. We aim to strengthen all such men and women who resolve to do so.

But too often the Church’s discussion of this issue, and ours too we must admit, fails to give enough consideration to the other option available to homosexuals. In our love for celibacy, ASJ cannot afford to forget to preach to gays that they have the option, which they should seriously ponder, of undertaking heterosexual matrimony.

Of course many gays of both sexes have for centuries done precisely this. For just because people are gay it does not so readily follow that they have the gift of celibacy. For those who do not, marriage to a member of the opposite sex is a viable path to salvation for gays, and Christians should defend and promote it.

Plenty of women who are eager to experience motherhood and family life wouldn’t hesitate for a second at the thought of starting such a life with a male friend they know is gay. It is not even going too far we don’t think to establish such women as a recognized ministry in the Church and give them special training fit for their mission.

Some may think for obvious reasons that it is much harder for a gay man to engage in sex with a woman. While that may be true to some extent, the experience of prison life proves this is an obstacle that can be cleared. Prisoners show quite clearly that heterosexual males can in fact make do with other men if no other opportunity avails itself. If straight men can do it with other men, then certainly gay men can in time become sufficiently aroused with a woman to perform the marriage act. Hey, if it helps any, ask her to stop shaving her legs.

 This article appeared in the June 4, 2008 issue of The Loyal Lion.