Civil Partnerships and gay marriage: Why all the fuss?

Many people cannot seem to understand what the problem with gay ‘marriage’ is! If two people love each other, well, then, why the fuss? Love is the sine qua non, after all, isn’t it? And surely equality and justice are good, noble, even Christian, virtues and goals.

If only it were that easy.

Sadly, regardless of what some say to assuage conservative fears about gay marriage, those at the forefront of this agenda are clear about their aims. In correspondence with supporters, Lynne Featherstone recently admitted that gay marriage is on the cards. (christianconcern.com/emailresource/lynnefeatherstoneemail)

So, if at the end of the day, gay marriage is legalised, what is the problem?

Actually, there are many, mostly still-hidden problems with gay marriage. Because discussing them is so politically incorrect (‘you’re just anti-gay!’), it is risky entering this minefield.

The worrying loss of freedom of conscience and religious liberty has already been explored at length, so I will focus elsewhere.

Let me begin with how members of other sexual minorities and ‘orientations’ are demanding the same rights as those pushing the LGBT agenda; the slippery slope is real. A Canadian court is now looking at decriminalising plural marriage, whether for polygamous families or polyamorous (three or more bisexual, heterosexual or homosexual lovers) families. And adult consensual (non-procreative) incest and other forms of ‘alternative sexuality’ and lifestyles are receiving increasingly positive press.

Gay marriage would be the final mainstreaming and legitimisation of gay sexual relations, and would prepare the way for the mainstreaming of all the other kinds of sexual relations.

Gay marriage will redefine marriage in more ways than simply the same-sex dimension. Though some gay couples will be sexually exclusive this is not at all the gay vision of marriage. It is ‘open’ marriage that is being practised and advocated by married gays in ‘progressive’ circles (see New York Times, 28 January 2010). Indeed, far from harming the union, sexual ‘openness’ allegedly enhances it! And ‘straight’ marrieds are beginning to believe that this might be good for them too. (www.nytimes.com/2010/01/29/us/29sfmetro.html?_r=2; for the survey itself: www.thecouplesstudy.com)

Gay marriage will also damage all our children, not just those of same-sex couples.
According to academic Maggie Gallagher, "Thousands of studies show children do better if they have a mother and father in a stable marriage, provided they are not in a high conflict or troubled situation …Years later, if you look at people in their 40s and 50s, you can still see a difference depending on whether or not these children are given what comes through parents in this thing called marriage." (www.franciscan.edu/about/Default.aspx?id=2610)

Gay marriage automatically negates the realities and requirements of gender. Adults may appear to get along without it, but the needs of children have not changed. If gay marriage goes through, it will become part of the cultural air we breathe that marriage is essentially all about adults’ desires, not children’s needs.

Those who raise children alone often do a valiant job but the toll is immense. The sexes are physiologically, anatomically and psychologically different. So, if at all possible, input from both their mother and father is important. It enables children to reach their full potential.

As academic Jennifer Roback Morse insists, 'Rather than attaching children to their biological parents, same sex marriage is the vehicle that separates children from a parent …'When we come to our senses 30 years from now and realise that we have perpetrated a grotesque injustice, not a single child born fatherless or motherless within a same sex marriage will get his missing parent back.' (www.ruthblog.org/2011/02/10/dr-morses-testimony-to-the-rhode-island-legislature-yesterday-re-ssm/)

Responding!

Please contact your pastor, priest or vicar and/or PCC, as well as your bishop or other denominational headquarters. Enquire as to how they see the situation and plan to respond. Also, contact Christian organisations like the Evangelical Alliance and CARE with your concerns, and ask them to become fully involved. They represent people like you! More people sharing their concerns mean increased confidence that their constituencies fully support them.
EA: info@eauk.org
CARE: mail@care.org.uk
The Salvation Army is another key player here, and should be contacted as well.
ls.n@talktalk.net