One of the most-read essays in the archives at Touchstone is “Bodies of Evidence,” an article about sex and marriage from a couple of years ago by Frederica Mathewes-Green.  It’s a fine article, with no surprises in its thesis, but I did come across this refreshing mini-essay-slash-sidebar at the bottom of the article, and I thought I’d share it with you.  In it, Mathewes-Green explains the problems of using the word “natural” in arguments to defend, among other things, homosexuality.  As in, other mammals show homosexual behaviors, so it must be a natural – i.e., permissible – thing, right?

Let’s differentiate between two meanings of the word natural. The first, and the one I’m using, is “what we can infer from the design of Creation.” The second is “anything that occurs in Nature.” For example, it’s obvious that a person’s teeth are designed to bite and chew food. But, sure, they’ve been used in other ways: There was a time when a boy could impress his pals by using his to pull the cap off a soft-drink bottle.

When we consider other body parts, it’s likewise obvious that penis and vagina are designed to fit together, but they undeniably get used in other ways. Whatever people do with these body parts can be termed “natural” in that second definition, a label that appears to hallow whatever it touches.

But there’s a problem. If “natural” means “anything that happens,” there are absolutely no limits. Anything that anyone can think of doing with his sex organs has to be called natural—not just homosexuality, but pedophilia, necrophilia, rape, or any other thing humans do. A definition that permits the first type of activity but excludes the others can’t do so without acquiring more clauses.

There’s a whole other, and related, usage of the term natural, and that’s the theological usage, as in nature versus grace, in the way Paul uses the term.  In this sense, natural means fallen, or corrupt.  Quite a different, albeit ironic, denotation of the term in today’s society.  But it’s a valuable exercise to consider the word and how it’s used in an argument.  Saying, “It’s natural” is license for just about anything these days.