Today, SPUC Scotland told the Scottish government that allowing same sex marriage would damage society and would put the unborn child at a far higher risk of being aborted. The following statement was issued:
SPUC Scotland, responding to the Scottish government’s consultation on the registration of civil partnership and same sex marriage, has said that allowing civil partnerships to be registered through religious ceremonies would give the false impression that such unions are marriages, be damaging to society and ultimately increase the threat to unborn children.* Why is marriage (and sexual ethics generally) important specifically for the pro-life movement? The late Pope John Paul II, the great pro-life champion, taught in no. 97 of his 1995 encyclical Evangelium Vitae that it is an illusion to think that we can build a true culture of human life if we do not offer adolescents and young adults an authentic education in sexuality, and in love, and the whole of life according to their true meaning and in their close interconnection.
SPUC Scotland said that same sex marriage is also damaging to society, promoting the false view that the complementary sexual difference of men and women with its natural link to procreation is irrelevant to the idea of marriage. A marriage is not a ‘mere’ deep friendship (which the State does not regulate, and which need not be permanent or exclusive) but is something more. It does not merely concern the sexual choices or emotions of adults, but concerns children and society. Marriage as an institution exists to protect the identity of children and their right to know and be nurtured by both their mother and their father. There is no direct relationship between any same sex union and a child – any more than between a non-sexual union (for example, a union of friends or siblings) and a child. Necessarily, one or both parents will come from outside the union.
Societies throughout history have recognised the importance of traditional marriage and understood it as a unique bond between man and woman. To recognise the unique nature of marriage and treat it accordingly does no injustice to anyone, whereas redefining marriage by fiat would radically alter the nature and meaning of a fundamental institution – an institution which, by any measure, has been proven to provide the best environment for the rearing of children.
SPUC Scotland has a particular interest in moves that dilute or weaken the meaning and social status of traditional marriage, not least because it is demonstrable that an unborn child has a far higher risk of being aborted when in the womb of an unmarried mother than a married one. To move ahead in the face of this fact and allow same sex partnerships to be effected by religious ceremonies would be to worsen a situation in regard to abortion which many accept is already very grave.
Comments on this blog? Email them to johnsmeaton@spuc.org.uk
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