Critical Exponent

Nicole Kidman is the latest poster child for gay marriage.

She just got married in the Catholic Church without getting an annulment, even though she was previously wed to Tom Cruise. How is this possible? The Catholic Church refuses to recognize the previous marriage because it was performed in the Church of Scientology. As the BBC notes, “[t]he divorce granted to the couple in 2001 was a legal rather than religious procedure for Kidman.”

You see the connection?

Even though the couple were legally wed under secular law, no church was forced to accept a marriage it didn’t want to. In other words, the Church was perfectly happy to make the distinction between civil marriage and religious marriage for Kidman. We have heard no cry from the Vatican as to how allowing Scientology marriages undermines the sanctity of Catholic marriages or forces the church to recognize them— because it doesn’t.

So why, then, can’t the Vatican refuse to recognize gay marriages if it wishes, but stay out of the civil marriage debate?

“Render unto Cæsar the things that are Cæsar’s…”

This entry was posted on Tuesday, June 27th, 2006 at 5:55 am and is filed under Gay rights, Religion in the public sphere. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.