The decision of the New York state legislature to approve gay marriage will be seen by some as a symptom of an underlying disease called “moral relativism.” But this is a mistake that, I think, blocks our understanding of what is really going on.
One need only look at the joy and satisfaction with which the decision was greeted by some to recognize that, far from indicating the disappearance of morality, the legislation is indicative of a strong moral order, and it is this order which is really at issue when we debate gay marriage.
Charles Taylor, in his A Secular Age, outlines the contours of what he names the Modern Moral Order (MMO).
The MMO replaces pre-modern versions of social hierarchy with an “order of mutual benefit,” organized around the securing of rights for individuals and their ability to exercise these rights in exchanges that conduce to mutual benefit, particularly in securing for all “the needs of ordinary life.”
The order does not aim at anything “higher” than this; it does not seek to replicate some transcendent form (Plato), nor conform to any religious command. Its progress consists in the extension of this order of mutual benefit to encompass as many persons as possible – and in theory, everyone.
In its more robust forms, the political order is called upon not simply to protect rights, but bring more and more into effect the equality of persons it promises – Taylor calls this the increasing “intensity” of the order, as opposed to its mere “expansion” to more and more individuals. In this latter mode of “intensity,” the modern State is at its most “crusading,” for it does not simply seek a negative freedom but seeks to use laws to demand recognition of some good.
Assuming Taylor’s characterization is right, gay marriage may seem like a no-brainer, since the law enables individuals to enter into a mutually-beneficial exchange, securing a particular powerful element of ordinary life, marriage.
The State has no interest in protecting any kind of transcendent order, including that of some supposed order of gender.
But if that’s true, why is the State interested in marriage in the first place?
Read more about the real issue behind Gay Marriage
Source
- Image: Swift Economics
Related Posts:
News category: Features.
