Should "same-sex marriage" be allowed to conform marriage with human nature?
You May Hear Proponents Argue . . ."Same-sex marriage should be allowed to conform marriage with human nature.
Same-sex marriage should be allowed to conform marriage with human nature. While human nature is shared by all, every member of the human race is not heterosexual. There have always been homosexuals throughout history, and no one suggests that homosexuals are not as fully human as heterosexuals. Variations in sexual attraction come from very strong but differently oriented natural desires, and same-sex attraction is as natural for homosexuals as opposite-sex attraction is for heterosexuals. Marriage should not conflict with human nature, yet for homosexuals restricting marriage to opposite-sex partners is both unnatural (contrary to nature) but seriously inhuman (contrary to their basic humanity). It not only denies their natural sexuality, but prevents them from ever reaching the ultimate level of human connectivity. Marriage will never conform with human nature until every human being is able to marry a partner to whom he or she is most naturally attracted, whether heterosexual or homosexual. But this argument is wrong. Marriage should indeed conform with, and not oppose, human nature. But this argu-ment is wrong because there is only a single human nature shared by all alike. That common human nature does not vary from individual to individual. It is something the entire human race shares the same way, not something that changes by individual preferences, feelings, or desires. Human nature is not a matter of private taste, and there is no such thing as a homosexual version of human nature that functions differently based on different sort of sexual preference. Human nature is something shared the same way by all regardless of preferences, feelings, or desires. It cannot depend on these things, because preferences, feelings, and desires change all the time, and nothing determined by these things can be shared the same way by all. Commonly shared human nature in relation to sex is not a matter of preference, feeling, or desire, but rather is set by the way human bodies function to procreate. It is set by the way human bodies naturally fit to procreate regardless of what partners choose, enjoy or intend. Only the male-female union conforms to our common human nature in relation to sex, and marriage only conforms to our commonly shared human nature when a man marries a woman.
You Can Graciously Refute This By Saying . . .
Same-sex marriage is wrong because it does not conform with human nature in relation to sex.
Excerpts from Why Not Same-Sex Marriage? a forthcoming book by Daniel R. Heimbach, Professor of Christian Ethics at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, North Carolina.
