Would Jesus approve of homosexual unions?

In today’s Gospel from the Mass (Mark 7:1-13), Jesus offers a harsh response to the Pharisees who are teaching false doctrine:

[1] Now when the Pharisees gathered together to him, with some of the scribes, who had come from Jerusalem, [2] they saw that some of his disciples ate with hands defiled, that is, unwashed.  [3] (For the Pharisees, and all the Jews, do not eat unless they wash their hands, observing the tradition of the elders;  [4] and when they come from the market place, they do not eat unless they purify themselves; and there are many other traditions which they observe, the washing of cups and pots and vessels of bronze.) [5] And the Pharisees and the scribes asked him, “Why do your disciples not live according to the tradition of the elders, but eat with hands defiled?” [6] And he said to them, “Well did Isaiah prophesy of you hypocrites, as it is written, `This people honors me with their lips, but their heart is far from me;  [7] in vain do they worship me,teaching as doctrines the precepts of men.’ [8] You leave the commandment of God, and hold fast the tradition of men.” [9] And he said to them, “You have a fine way of rejecting the commandment of God, in order to keep your tradition! [10] For Moses said, `Honor your father and your mother’; and, `He who speaks evil of father or mother, let him surely die’;  [11] but you say, `If a man tells his father or his mother, What you would have gained from me is Corban’ (that is, given to God) — [12] then you no longer permit him to do anything for his father or mother, [13] thus making void the word of God through your tradition which you hand on. And many such things you do.”

Today, there are many who seek to imply that Jesus Christ would support the idea of homosexual unions.  Often, these activists, argue on a general principle of “love”, suggesting that Jesus would be tolerant and only wish for the happiness of homosexuals who wish to live together.  Other times, those who endorse homosexual unions argue that “Jesus never condemned homosexual behavior in any way”.

Sadly, those who promote such ideas are both wrong and lead other’s astray in their desires to justify their confused views of marriage.  Today’s scriptures offer one of many examples of how Jesus vigorously condemns the breaking of the commandments and those who promote such heresy:

• Recall that the Pharisees and the Scribes were highly respected as keepers of the Law; they were also a sort of “religious police” who sought to encourage, or bully, when necessary, Jews into pious behaviors.  This is not unlike those who publicly seek to intimidate people today into being politically correct.  Like the bullying tactics of the Pharisees, the secularists and pluralists of today seek to coerce people through name calling and harassment using lawsuits.
• Jesus responds with vigor and a harsh bluntness: He calls the Pharisees hypocrites, referring to Isaiah.
• He condemns their twisting of scripture, Scripture that Jesus Himself wrote.
• Jesus upholds the 4th Commandment as taking precedence over anything that the Pharisees might have come up with to meet their own selfish desires.
• It is important to recall that the 4th Commandment speaks of “Honoring thy father and mother”.  It does not say, “Honor thy mother and mother and thy sperm donor” or “Honor thy father and father and thy surrogate mother.”

To suggest that Christ is somehow missing something in His basic reaffirmation of the importance of family or that He somehow leaves open the idea of seeking to go against Natural Law that He Himself put in place, is simply a lie.

As the Church that Jesus Christ Himself founded and protects today teaches, marriage is between a man and a woman.