Life, Love, and Sex

People are being forced today totake a stand on same-sex marriage, assisted suicide and capital punishment. Asthey ponder how to vote on these issues, a critical question emerges: Is thismorally right?At the same time people havebecome confused about the morality of sex in general. What should they teachtheir teenagers and how talk with their older sons and daughters about livingtogether. Undergirding current sexual practice is the unquestioned acceptanceof contraception. Should contraception be explicitly examined?Besides clarifying each issue Ilet the reader know what the Church teaches (using the Catechism of theCatholic Church and Pope John Paul IIs encyclicals). And I show howreasonable the Church's position is (utilizing the writings of Germain Grisez,a distinguished lay moral theologian and philosopher.) To ensure readersunderstand Grisez's solutions to these diverse issues I explain in simple termshis ethical approach.Non-Catholics will findespecially significant the human reasoning behind such teachings. They andCatholics can dialogue on this level. The Pope's early writings on conjugallove may prove impressive.People just do not discussabortion today, for positions seem hardened and unbreachable. By posing aseries of fundamental questions, logically interrelated, I hope to breach theunbreachable. At least it will be clear precisely where participants partcompany from one another.The most sensitive issue I findto be homosexuality. I have rewritten the treatment a number of times in aneffort to be clear, fair, and sensitive.