The Society of Tradition
Doctrine Committee
The Thirteenth Day of June, The Year of our Lord 2025
Concerning the Divinely Ordained Union of Man and Woman and the Church’s Condemnation of Unnatural Affections
In every age, the Church of Christ hath proclaimed the sanctity of marriage and the ordered nature of human affections according to the will of God. This teaching, rooted in Holy Scripture, natural law, and the wisdom of the saints, is unchangeable, as it reflects the immutable nature of God Himself.
I. The Divine Institution of Marriage
From the beginning, God established marriage as a holy union between one man and one woman. The book of Genesis reveals:
“So God created man in his own image, in the image of God he created him; male and female he created them. And God blessed them and said, ‘Be fruitful and multiply’” (Genesis 1:27-28).
This union was further sanctified when our Lord Jesus Christ affirmed the divine ordinance:
“Have you not read that he who created them from the beginning made them male and female, and said, ‘Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and the two shall become one flesh’? So they are no longer two but one flesh. What therefore God has joined together, let not man separate” (Matthew 19:4-6).
Thus, marriage is not a human convention but a sacrament instituted by God, signifying the covenantal relationship between Christ and His Bride, the Church (Ephesians 5:25-32). These passages mean what they say precisely, without twisting of meaning. ‘The two shall become one flesh’ is limited only to one man and one wife; any other carnal affair deviates from this prescription. Those deviations from the divinely ordained pattern is a rebellion against God’s will and design.
II. Biblical Condemnation of Homosexual Acts
The Holy Scriptures are unequivocal in their condemnation of homosexual behavior. The law of Moses declares: “You shall not lie with a male as with a woman; it is an abomination”* (Leviticus 18:22).
St. Paul, the Apostle to the Gentiles, affirms this teaching in his epistle to the Romans:
“For this reason God gave them up to dishonorable passions. For their women exchanged natural relations for those that are contrary to nature; and the men likewise gave up natural relations with women and were consumed with passion for one another, men committing shameless acts with men and receiving in themselves the due penalty for their error” (Romans 1:26-27).
Further, in his letter to the Corinthians, he warns:
“Do not be deceived: neither the sexually immoral, nor idolaters, nor adulterers, nor men who practice homosexuality…will inherit the kingdom of God” (1 Corinthians 6:9-10).
These passages bear witness to the gravity of such acts, not as mere cultural prohibitions but as divine judgments.
III. The Testimony of the Church Fathers
The Fathers of the Church have unanimously upheld the biblical teaching on marriage and condemned all unnatural affections.
St. John Chrysostom writes:
“For the two, it says, shall be one flesh. Genesis 2:24 But this the desire of intercourse effected, and united the sexes to one another. This desire the devil having taken away, and having turned the course thereof into another fashion, he thus sundered the sexes from one another, and made the one to become two parts in opposition to the law of God. For it says, the two shall be one flesh; but he divided the one flesh into two: here then is one war. Again, these same two parts he provoked to war both against themselves and against one another. For even women again abused women, and not men only. And the men stood against one another, and against the female sex, as happens in a battle by night. You see a second and third war, and a fourth and fifth; there is also another, for beside what have been mentioned they also behaved lawlessly against nature itself. For when the Devil saw that this desire it is, principally, which draws the sexes together, he was bent on cutting through the tie, so as to destroy the race, not only by their not copulating lawfully, but also by their being stirred up to war, and in sedition against one another.” (*Homilies on Romans*, 4)
St. Augustine, reflecting on the order of creation, declares:
“Those shameful acts against nature, such as were committed in Sodom, ought everywhere and always to be detested and punished. If all nations were to do such things, they would be held guilty of the same crime by the law of God, which has not made men so that they should use one another in this way.” (*Confessions*, Book III, Chapter 8)
The teaching of the Fathers is clear: homosexual acts are unnatural, contrary to divine and natural law, and must be repented of for the salvation of the soul.
IV. The Natural Law
Natural law, which is inscribed upon the hearts of all men, bears witness to the proper use of human sexuality. As St. Thomas Aquinas explains: “The natural law is nothing else than the rational creature’s participation of the eternal law.”* (*Summa Theologiae, I-II, Q. 91, Art. 2)
Sexual acts are ordered toward procreation and the unity of husband and wife. Any use of sexuality that thwarts this purpose is a violation of natural law. St. Thomas further writes:
*”Now the natural use [of the sexual act] is that which is according to the proper order of its end… Wherefore, since by the Divine ordinance it is only in the union of male and female that generation can be effected, it follows that every use of the generative power which cannot result in generation is contrary to nature.” (Summa Theologiae, II-II, Q. 154, Art. 11) The bodies of man and wife presuppose the existence and partnership of the other. The child that becomes from ‘two becoming one’ is an icon of holy union and the indissoluble bond that forms is only possible though holy union.
Homosexual acts, therefore, stand in direct opposition to natural law, as they are sterile and disordered. These unfruitful and selfish desires are not conducive to God’s intended purpose for our lives. He shows us this with natural consequences as moral judgment through creation; as Saint Paul says in Romans “For the wrath of God is revealed from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness of men, who hold the truth in unrighteousness;” (Romans 1:18) Familial relationships become strained and fractured, unnatural pairings are commonly abusive, and public display of sinful pairings is a corrosive spiritual contagion to society. Fleeting pleasures are nothing compared to the fulfillment that righteous, ordered life provides us through God’s will.
V. The Call to Repentance and Holiness
The Church, in her maternal charity, does not eternally condemn persons who struggle with same-sex attractions but calls them to repentance, chastity, and holiness. As St. Paul reminds us:
“Such were some of you. But you were washed, you were sanctified, you were justified in the name of the Lord Jesus Christ and by the Spirit of our God” (1 Corinthians 6:11).
The grace of Christ is sufficient to transform even the most hardened sinner. Homosexuals are called to chastity. By the virtue of self control, they can and should be able to abstain from sexual immorality. Denial of our sinful desires are commanded of us in Luke: “And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.” (Luke 9:23)
VI. Conclusion
The importance of rightly ordered marriage is not an ends of itself, but one way our eternally gracious Lord enables His purpose for us. To pervert the sacrament He has gifted us is an abomination to an edifying spiritual aid in our lives. We condemn the vanity of those who pridefully distort marriage and reduce it to a legal contract of carnal affairs.
Let the Church, as the pillar and foundation of truth (1 Timothy 3:15), boldly proclaim the sanctity of marriage and the divine order of human affections. Let her righteously judge those sinful carnal desires that undermine good order to the detriment of God’s people. And Let her extend the merciful call of the Gospel to all, offering hope and redemption through the blood of Christ.
As St. Ignatius of Antioch exhorted the early Christians:
“Do not be misled, my brothers and sisters; those who adulterously corrupt households will not inherit the kingdom of God. Now if those who do such things physically are put to death, how much more if by evil teaching someone corrupts faith in God, for which Jesus Christ was crucified! Such a person, having polluted himself, will go to the unquenchable fire, as will also the one who listens to him.” (Epistle to the Ephesians, 16)
– As presented to the Society of Tradition Doctrine Committee by Vice President Zach Easton and edited by the Committee whole
Leave a Reply