Sexual mobility then led to gender mobility. Because marriage had broken down, and because the sexual act had become separated from procreation and from marriage, a huge amount of confusion arose about sexuality and gender identity. To put it simply, when sex stopped being about babies, it also stopped being about men and women becoming mommies and daddies, and when it didn’t matter if a man was a father or a woman was a mother, people had trouble figuring out what a man really was and a woman really was. Sexual mobility also led to radical feminism and the homosexualist movement — both of which also contributed in their own way to the wave of gender mobility.
Faced with such historic and overwhelming changes in human society, it is difficult to see how a traditional Catholic understanding of marriage can survive. Those who believe the truths of the Catholic faith should take heart. Wherever there is poison, there is a great need for an antidote. When people are lost in the dark, they have a great longing for a light and a map. When people are confused, wounded and alone they search for an answer, a healer, a home and a family.
As times continue to darken and more and more people are mired in the marriage mess, the Catholic ideal of a loving family, rooted in a lifelong, abundant marriage will be a radiant and attractive witness — like a lighthouse for those battling a tumultuous sea.
Fr. Dwight Longeneckeris a former Evangelical, then an Anglican priest and now a Catholic priest. Visit his website atdwightlongenecker.comto browse his books and be in touch.
And today we celebrate...
