Posted on 05/22/2012 6:25:30 AM PDT by marshmallow
Gay marriage and homosexuality were part of the moral landscape faced by the first Christians in Ancient Rome.
Given that the gay marriage agenda will be increasingly pressed upon Catholics by the state, we should be much more aware of what history has to teach us about gay marriage—given that we don’t want to be among those who, ignorant of history, blithely condemned themselves to repeat it.
Contrary to the popular view—both among proponents and opponents—gay marriage is not a new issue. It cannot be couched (by proponents) as a seamless advance on the civil rights movement, nor should it be understood (by opponents) as something that’s evil merely because it appears to them to be morally unprecedented.
Gay marriage was—surprise!—alive and well in Rome, celebrated even and especially by select emperors, a spin-off of the general cultural affirmation of Roman homosexuality. Gay marriage was, along with homosexuality, something the first Christians faced as part of the pagan moral darkness of their time.
What Christians are fighting against today, then, is not yet another sexual innovation peculiar to our “enlightened age,” but the return to pre-Christian, pagan sexual morality.
So, what was happening in ancient Rome? Homosexuality was just as widespread among the Romans as it was among the Greeks (a sign of which is that it was condoned even by the stolid Stoics). The Romans had adopted the pederasty of the Greeks (aimed, generally, at boys between the ages of 12 to 18). There was nothing shameful about such sexual relations among Romans, if the boy was not freeborn. Slaves, both male and female, were considered property, and that included sexual property.
But the Romans also extended homosexuality to adult men, even adult free men. And it is likely that this crossing of the line from child to adult......
(Excerpt) Read more at catholicworldreport.com ...
——It cannot be couched (by proponents) as a seamless advance on the civil rights movement,-——
This is a variant on C.S. Lewis’ “chronological snobbery,” the typically modern/ progressive idea that the present, in every aspect, is necessarily better than what existed in the past.
This idea is used to further the homosexual movement, to attack Islam (”it’s 7th century”), and my pet peeve, the Catholic Church
(”It’s medieval”). This is particularly idiotic, since the medieval period represented the high point in Western philosophy.
The homosexual marriages were considered sham marriages by the Romans, and even the depraved men who participated in them were not serious - it was part of the sexual fun, and they did not need to divorce before they “married” again.
I know the author is not speaking in favor of the practices of ancient Rome, but our times are even worse in a way because we take homosexual marriage seriously.
It is intereting to find out how the concept of contraception was already in vogue in a pagan and promiscuous society in Rome. We all know the fate of the Roman Empire.
It is one thing for a married couple who already have children to decide to use contraception for reasons that they decide are moral, and the contrary view that contraception is the answer to promiscuity and unwanted pregnancies. Idiots who advocate for the latter have the cart before the horse, so to speak.
The Preacher had words to say about that idea. There is nothing new under the sun.
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This concept is nothing less than a foundational pillar of Leftist thinking. They have absolutely no respect for the refined intelligence of the past which shaped our highly beneficent, proven traditions and morals.
Homosexuality is different from most sins in that it is a violation of God’s laws and the natural order of things. Adultery, for example, is a sin, but it still involves using the body as nature has designed it.
I think a culture that embraces homosexuality, therefore, is on its last legs. While there is no evil that man won’t do without God, the public acceptance and endorsement of sodomy is one of the final steps of a depraved civilization.
It’s one thing to tolerate men who engage in depraved sex acts with each other. It’s something entirely different, and much, much worse I’d argue, to endorse those “unions” as something equal to heterosexual marriage. That, my FRiends, is pretty much the last step before this country jumps off the cliff.
Bingo. Nailed it.
It was widespread during the decline of the Roman Empire, right before it fell. ...
Anyone see any connection to periods in history where sexual paganism prevailed?
Put another way: do you believe in evolution? I do: Sister Ann Francis taught us all about it. But do societies evolve, too, like animals?
How is it that marriage has evolved into one man and one woman? If anything, polygamy has a more recent and relevant history in this country and on this continent than gay marriage does.
Great article. Ping for later.
Bump.
"Gay marriage and homosexuality were part of the moral landscape faced by the first Christians in Ancient Rome."
This a good article but I do have one bone to pick with the author and other authors as well, for that matter, and it's in the very first line of the article. Why do so many people go along with calling the perversion of same sex "marriage", gay marriage? It's 'Same Sex Role Playing", 'A Perverse Affront to Marriage", or maybe, 'Enshrining Unnatural Perversion'. Whatever it can be called, it's shouldn't be called "gay marriage" no matter how convenient is is to do so. Every time someone uses the term "gay" rather than at a minimum "homosexual" they're reinforcing the propaganda that's been spread for so long.
There is no "gay lifestyle", there is only aberrant, unnatural, perverse, homosexual, behavior that some people repeat as long as they can get away with it.
JMHO
Yep.
Indeed. What does it tell us about our society that even the decadent, pagan Romans knew better than to give state legal sanctions to such unions?
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