MARRIAGE RIGHTS, JUDGING, AND GENDER: Erik Nelson replies to Matt Taylor

[Erik Nelson is a research associate at Episcopal Action.]

Matt Taylor writes, "Empirical evidence refutes the radical feminist notion that gender is entirely cultural, but it also refutes the orthodox religious view that gender is an eternal, absolute dichotomy. Homosexuality, transgender identity, intersex and other variations on gender were not invented by a few university intellectuals; they are natural reality for real people."

This demonstrates a common misunderstanding of what religious orthodoxy means by "natural." I've seen the error often enough. When religiously
orthodox Christians say that heterosexual marriage is "natural" they mean
that it is part of the natural pre-Fall order created by God, expressed in
the physical makeup of man and woman. Christian orthodoxy believes
that mankind's fallenness results in a distorted understanding of human
nature and to misuse of our bodies. In other words, when Taylor writes that such behaviors are a "natural reality for real people" he has a very
different concept of nature than a religiously orhtodox person does. No
Christian would deny that such things feel natural for those people who feel
them, but they would also argue that they are still unnatural in the sense that they violate God's created, natural, pre-Fall ordering of human sexuality. Orthodox Christians would argue that empirical evidence only
demonstrates the existence of sin, and that such evidence is essentially incapable of refuting the point about the created natural order which is revealed truth untestable by the scientific method. Of course, this means the argument is likely one that cannot be resolved.
posted by Eve at 4:51 AM VOTE

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