Pseudosex in Pseudotheology

Abstract

John Beaumont has attempted to revitalize the official Roman Catholic position against the use of artificial contraception by reinvigorating the argument against such from natural law. Maintaining that sexual acts are essentially reproductive acts, he holds that the use of contraceptives by married couples reduces intercourse to the same moral level as homosexual acts. He further argues that acceptance of birth control has directly led to the legitimization of homosexual acts in American society. However, his analysis fails to distinguish between historical connections between the various elements of the sexual revolution and deep moral relationships. His dependency on the natural law tradition also results in an impoverished theological vision, which fails to relate human sexuality and the unitive drive to the divine image in mankind. Only an anthropology which takes account of the Holy Trinity as the paradigm for human being can adequately ground sexuality. This theological context, which is supplied in the Eastern Orthodox tradition, grounds human sexuality in interpersonal communion in love. It finds in the unitive drive the need to realize the fullness of humanity in this experience of communion, which directly reflects the Trinitarian nature of God. From such a perspective, the moral equation of marital acts to homosexual indulgences is revealed as a gross distortion. Furthermore, the moral gulf that Beaumont seeks to establish between natural family planning and the use of contraceptives collapses, as does the usefulness of natural law tradition in general to combat the secularization of human sexuality.