QUOTE TO NOTE: Comparing Contraception and Marriage Equality
The marriage equality debate in Minnesota hit the small town of Morris, where a Catholic citizen, Michael Lackey, recently penned an op-ed in the Sun Tribune, puzzling over why some folks continue to oppose allowing lesbian and gay couples to marry. As part of that essay, he offers the following comparison:
“I genuinely do not understand why so many people oppose gay marriage. I was raised in a Catholic family, and some members of my family believe that contraception is immoral. They believe that it does not respect the sanctity of life, and that those who use contraception, even if they oppose a woman’s right to choose, are ultimately anti-life. As conservative as these relatives are, they would never say that the United States should outlaw contraception, because they know that there are many Christian traditions that permit the use of contraception and that the government cannot base its laws on the doctrines of a particular religious tradition, or any religious tradition.”
–Francis DeBernardo, New Ways Ministry
Precisely. It is well to remember the comment of the late Richard Cardinal Cushing in 1963, when there was a move in Massachusetts to repeal the Commonwealth’s long-standing prohibition of contraceptive materials. Cardinal Cushing said, “I have no right to impose my thinking, which is rooted in religious thought, on those who do not think as I do.” We must not lose sight of the fact that marriage equality concerns only civil marriage.