12 Mar 2012

On gay marriage

So, the Roman Catholic church is banging on about gay marriage and this is filling the newspapers.

I am at a loss as to why this is news.

The RC church is not exactly renowned for it's tolerance of homosexuality. I cannot understand why celibate clerics like dictating everyone's sexual practice to such an alarming degree, be it through with whom you're allowed to have sex, when or whether you're allowed to avoid STDs doing so. This is a church that demonises masturbation based on a wilful misinterpretation of a Bible story. Sex is shame. That's no way to live.
The RC church is a minority in this country - 13.5% of the total population, according to the 2001 census. That's roughly the population of London.
Even if the church had ultimate sway over government legislation, it wouldn't be up to the RC church to sway it. This country is Church of England. It went to great pains to rid us of papal rule several hundred years ago. Even now, to be Roman Catholic and royal is to forfeit your place in the succession. There is nothing in law to stop a non-Anglican MP becoming Prime Minister, but it hasn't happened yet.

The main thrust of the argument appears to be that marriage is an institution for the bearing of children, and that this underpins society as a whole. Only, you know, it doesn't. Bastard children no longer bear the stigma they did even as recently as 20 years ago. I may be a single parent now, but I got married long before I started a family. Marriage didn't stop my husband being an adulterous swine. Shotgun weddings are a thing of the past - women are now allowed to decide for themselves when, with whom and in what marital state they bear their children.
So, if people getting married are doing so for love, rather than to ensure their children aren't stigmatised bastards, what bearing does sexuality have on it? None.

Civil partnership is marriage without the name - it confers the same benefits and rights as a heterosexual marriage. It's just not allowed to be called what it is. This is an argument about semantics. But NO CHURCH owns the word, concept or actuality of marriage.

It's not as if ALL the homosexual couples in the UK are demanding to be married BY THE POPE. It is up to individual churches to decide whether to allow their ministers to perform the marriage. If I decide to marry again, not all churches will let me, as an Evil Shameful Divorcee, but I don't really care because it's the marriage that counts, not the venue.
Christianity has it's roots in love - love for God, love for each other.
And marriage is nothing to do with sex - marriage is the ultimate expression of love.

1 comment:

  1. Couldn't agree more. What's worrying about the archbishops letter is that he does not mention God very often.. doesn't mention the man who he's supposed to be speaking for. So is he speaking for the institution? Like you say, they don't have that kind of power. Worrying!

    Sarah (Promethus). x

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