This is one thing that a lot of people don't understand about early Christian traditions and gay marriage.
Including most Christians in America.
In early Christian tradition, people were only supposed to marry in order to have children.
Marriage legitamized having sex. This was supposed to be used only in order to have children.
The ideal was to live a life like that of a monk- to be chaste.
So yes, early Christian tradition said that marriage is between a man and a woman.
It had nothing to do with gay people.
You weren't supposed to get married at all unless it was to have children.
Gay couples cannot have children.
That's it- it had nothing to do with gay people.
Single people could adopt. Monks in monasteries often raised children.
Unless you were trying to have children, you were supposed to be unmarried and chaste.
It was not an issue for them- it was just a definition, nothing more.
In their society it did not make sense for two people who cannot biologically have children to get married, any more than it makes sense for someone today who does not have a car to buy car insurance!
They were not against homosexuality- they were against unnecessary sex. Having sex is necessary to propogate the species. But two guys can't have a child. And a woman can't get another woman pregnant. They were against unnecessary sex. They were, and still age, just as against a heterosexual couple having sex and trying to not get pregnant. They were, and in the Catholic church still are, not against homosexuality, but against unnecessary sex of any kind.
You could have nonsexual, Platonic relationships with whoever you want. Man, woman, whoever you want.
But unless you were trying to have children, you were not supposed to get married, and you were supposed to remain chaste.
Or at least keep up the appearance that you were chaste.
You could have whoever you want as a lover, but it was supposed to be a nonsexual, Platonic relationship.
The modern world has very different ideas on marriage.
But there is a very big difference between the Catholic Church not accepting gay marriage and Calvinist Republican conservatives in America opposing gay marriage.
The Catholic church has never accepted the modern idea that any adult can get married.
The Catholic church still follows the ideal that marriage is for procreation only.
But Catholic priests do not harass gay people.
They know that marriage is, in the old Christian tradition, for procreation only and that if you cannot have children that you are not supposed to get married.
That it has nothing to do with anyone being gay.
The Calvinist conservatives in America, on the other hand, do not even know why early Christians were opposed to gay marriage.
They think that Christians are supposed to pick a fight with gay people. They think that Christians are supposed to harass gay people.
Jesus taught us otherwise.
Jesus taught us that we are supposed to be kind to each other.
And Jesus taught us that we should especially have mercy on society's innocent outcastes.
And the Catholic church teaches us to be kind to people, that it is a Christian's job to not pick a fight with people, but to treat all people with kindness and love.
Just like Jesus taught us.
And although many Catholics have probably forgotten the historical context, if pressed I'm sure that most Catholics will tell you that they associate marriage with having children, just like the early Christians did.
I hope this puts it all in perspective, and shows that Christians were never supposed to be mean to gay people.
And that the Catholic church, for the most part, unlike the protestant Calvinists in America, are trying to be nice to everyone- including gay people.
They just expect people who cannot biologically have children to not get married and to stay chaste. Like a monk. Like the original Christian ideal, which the Catholic churhc has held onto all this time.
The ideal that says that a Christian is supposed to treat all people, including gay people, with kindness.
Not the Calvinist ideal that a Christian is supposed to get angry at certain people.
True Christianity is not an angry religion.
Sincerely,
David S. Annderson