Same Sex Marriage and the Church

The person that I interviewed was a priest, Hernan Arias, who is currently a priest in St. Anthony of Padua in Passaic, New Jersey. Hernan believes that he plays a very important role in political socialization. The following is a thorough interview with priest, Hernan Arias and what roles as a priest he plays in society and politics as a whole.
One of the first questions that was asked during his interview was gay marriage and his views on this topic. When he first became a priest one of the things he began to study was marriage and its purposes. The purpose of marriage through the eyes of church and Hernan is procreation, education of children, and allowing people to get rid of their sex urge. The Church has always considered the homosexual act as evil. A same sex marriage allows two people to come together in a sinful condition. His responsibility as a priest is to educate people as to what they see as the values of marriage. When Kerry was running for president he covered many topics in his campaign including gay marriage. President Kerry would allow for long term gay relationships to have rights such as those of married couples. The church saw this as a threat because of its morals and values. If the leader of a country allows for gay marriage to be legalized then eventually the belief of same sex marriage would not be a sin.
“We want to make sure that all children are protected and receive equal rights.” Hernan stated. It is a critical issue and the church is very insistent and very consistent that, while no individual should be without protection, marriage where a mother and a father are present in a child's life. This is what the ideal situation would be. Homosexual people must always be accepted with respect, compassion, and sensitivity, but will not be accepted by the Roman Catholic Church.
As a priest, he plays an important role in informing the public in his Sunday masses of what these candidates had in mind for the country. Hernan talked about in one of his masses how these candidates wanted abortion and gay marriage legalized, which are sins. Gay marriage does not exist in the eyes of God, because there is no procreation involved. The purpose of the human race believed by the church is to procreate and teach our children to do the same. If society allows gay marriage our purpose in life is being overlooked.
Another topic that we discussed ...

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...s the salary of teachers, it would be unconstitutional (Sidlow, 81). Hernan states, “This is why so many catholic schools can not continue with their operations because we are not receiving any funds from the government.”
If the government would fund such activities then they would be violating their separation of state and church principle. It is not up to the government if the school gets closed down or not.
It is certain that the church has instilled in us the idea of monotheism and its values. People begin attending church from when they are newborns. The minute they are born these children are taken to church to get baptized and believe in God. In order to follow God and his path we must obey his rules. All of these beliefs and values are taught to us by the church and our parents.
In conclusion, those in charge of churches are very influential when it comes to political socialization because they are delivering the message of God. They instill in society what is wrong and what is right. They tell us who to vote for and what is legalized but yet immoral. They tell us who has the right to marry. They tell us how to live if we want to enter heaven which everyone wants to do.