The writer doesn’t say so, but I think she was responding in part to the post “Punishing Singles.”

Question:

I think that when you show why single parents or gay parents are not as good for children as a normal couple would be, you might overlook the number of children who have much worse growing environments.  As you yourself point out, even the best run orphanage is not the best place to raise a child.  Would you use that as a reason to leave a child sleeping in the street, because you could only put him, or her, in an orphanage?  Of course not.

As for homosexuality, well, God’s plan is to have two complementary sexes, but then God’s plan is that we all have two good eyes, two good arms, two good legs, and two good ears for hearing -- and we run across people who lack at least one of those on a regular basis, and no amount of explaining what God’s purpose is will make the deaf hear, nor the blind see.

Reply:

Thank you for writing.  Let me take each of your suggestions in turn

First one:  It is better to have a child adopted by a single parent than to let him sleep in the streets.

My argument is that we should do the best for children that we can.  When good moms and dads are available, we should give them moms and dads.  How does it follow from this premise that when the best is not available, we should deny them the second and third best too?

By the way, for the vast majority of children good moms and dads are available; there is no shortage of couples who want to adopt children.  The problem is that the government treats prospective parents so badly and makes adoption so difficult, time-consuming, and expensive.  We don’t have to resort to triage.

Second one:  Yes, God’s plan is to have two complementary sexes, but then God’s plan is that we all have two good eyes, and that doesn’t always happen.

Suppose a friend of yours suffered an abnormally strong temptation to drink too much alcohol – it doesn’t matter why.  Would you tell this poor soul, “Because you are so strongly tempted, go ahead and stay drunk all the time”?  I would tell him “Because you are so strongly tempted, I know you have to work harder to stay sober than other people do, but you can count on me for support and encouragement.”  I think we should respond the same way when our friends suffer abnormally strong temptations to sexual incontinence.  And I am talking about heterosexuals too.