Inside and outside the church, the debate on marriage equality
for lesbian and gay couples has provided some interesting
discussion about the institution of marriage generally. Two
recent articles by prominent Catholic thinkers and observers,
Garry Wills and Jamie Manson, are two exceptionally good
examples. In “The Myth About Marriage,” published in The New
York Review of Books, Wills focuses on whether or not marriage
has any religious significance: “Why do some people who would
recognize gay civil unions oppose gay marriage? Certain
religious groups want to deny gays the sacredeness of what they
take to be a sacrament. But marriage is no sacrament.” In
examining the scriptures used to support a religious view of
marriage–such as the Creation story, Jesus’ comments on divorce
(Mark 10:8), and the wedding at Cana (John 10:1-11)–Wills finds
no evidence of the institution of marriage as a Christian
sacrament. He quotes Fr. Raymond Brown, the renowned Scripture
scholar on the Cana story: “Neither the external n