• About
  • Resources

The Theology Forum

~ Smile! You’re at the best WordPress.com site ever

The Theology Forum

Tag Archives: moral teaching

Austen Ivereigh and Tina Beattie in the Guardian on Catholicism and Gay Marriage

05 Tuesday Feb 2013

Posted by tbeattie2012 in theology forum

≈ 3 Comments

Tags

austen ivereigh, catholic voices, comment is free, gay marriage, guardian, homosexuality, jean porter, marriage, moral teaching, natural law, reproduction, sexuality, tina beattie

Those who have been following our discussion of homosexuality, marriage and Catholicism may be interested in today’s Comment is Free column in the Guardian. Austen Ivereigh of Catholic Voices and Tina Beattie offer contrasting views on the issue.

Particularly relevant to our earlier discussions is Ivereigh’s description of heterosexual marriage as the ‘gold standard’ of childcare. He writes:

In the new dispensation, why should we much care about marriage? In those countries which have redefined it, fewer people now marry and more divorce: that is bad for society, and for children. The gold standard of childcare (and on this there is a remarkable consensus among psychologists) is that children fare best when raised by their birth parents.

Others – gay couples, maiden aunts, foster parents, single mums – usually offer outstanding love and care, but they cannot provide the structure that is most conducive to a child’s wellbeing and sense of identity. The fact that some gay couples (as do maiden aunts or foster parents) raise children, and many married couples fail to have children, does not detract from the reason why the state promotes marriage – to support and promote that gold standard. It is hard to know why, having severed the link to children, the state has an interest in promoting same-sex relationships but not other kinds of non-marital union.

While the excerpt from Jean Porter’s essay was concerned with natural law, Ivereigh’s comments touch on one of her main points:

Certainly, on any plausible account of the place of sexuality in a mammalian species such as our own, sex will serve a reproductive purpose, but the fact that we are social primates as well as mammals points to a more complex account of the overall purposes of sex. That is to say, we are not only animals, which reproduce sexually, but social animals, for whom sexual exchange and interaction serve to express and cement social and personal bonds – indeed, to forge personal bonds, and hence to some extent and with many qualifications, to shape and to form personal identity.

Ivereigh is reasserting the position that what makes marriage distinct from all other forms of relationships is not ‘sexual exclusivity, sexual difference, lifelong commitment, cohabitation’, but reproduction and the raising of children by their birth parents. The other elements merely foster a stable environment for these more primary functions. His comments only highlight the significance of Porter’s argument. Ivereigh’s argument hinges on the belief that reproduction (or its possibility) is the defining characteristic of marriage. By whittling down the theological justifications behind this position, Porter offers an immanent critique which allows Catholics to be open to same-sex marriage rather than feeling it is being imposed by secular authorities.

Tina Beattie offers a view congruent with Porter’s, one that will be familiar to those of you who follow her work. So I’ll just highlight her conclusion:

I have come to believe that same-sex marriage would be good for society and for the individuals involved.

And I’d like us to get that out of the way and hold this profoundly inegalitarian government to account for its much greater abuses and violations with regard to the destruction of the welfare state and the fabric of care and social responsibility upon which every family – gay or straight – depends for its wellbeing.

Advertisements

On Being a Catholic Theologian: Essays by Joseph Selling

23 Friday Nov 2012

Posted by tbeattie2012 in essay, theology forum

≈ Leave a comment

Tags

authority, ecclesiology, joseph selling, moral teaching

We have two new articles by Joe Selling which he has kindly agreed to make available here:

Joseph A. Selling – ‘The Authority of Church Teaching on Matters of Morality’

Joseph A. Selling – ‘Authority and Moral Teaching in a Catholic Christian Context’

Categories

  • announcement (7)
  • announcements (2)
  • essay (8)
  • events (2)
  • links round up (3)
  • questions (1)
  • Research Seminars (7)
  • theology forum (14)
  • Uncategorized (24)

alban mccoy alexander stille amy davidson andrew cooke argentina augusto zampini austen ivereigh authority bbc beattie brian flanagan bridges and tangents cardinal leonardo sandri cardinals Catholic church catholicism catholic voices comment is free Digby Stuart Research Centre doctrine dsrc durham ecclesiology Gavin D'Costa gay marriage guardian hegel homosexuality human rights jean porter john cassidy john henry newman john noonan joseph selling lacan lay theology links magisterium marriage moral teaching national catholic reporter natural law news Nicholas Lash notre dame papabile of the day papacy papal resignation papal transition Paul Lakeland philosophy of religion pope pope benedict pope francis pound psychoanalysis ray flynn religion reproduction rights rocco palmo roman catholic church samuel kimbriel seminar sexuality simon oliver stephen wang the new yorker theology theology forum the other journal the tablet tina beattie University of Roehampton vatican

Archives

  • July 2013
  • May 2013
  • March 2013
  • February 2013
  • January 2013
  • December 2012
  • November 2012
  • October 2012
  • September 2012
  • July 2012
  • June 2012
  • May 2012
  • March 2012

Blogroll

  • Digby Stuart Research Centre for Religion, Society and Human Flourishing
Advertisements

Blog at WordPress.com.