Scottish Catholic Observer

As Christmas approaches, and the value of family comes into sharp focus at this joyful spiritual time, the bizarre and dangerous path our elected officials are on with regards to marriage legislation can be seen all the more clearly at odds with our society’s wishes.

It is often said that individuals are like tea, you do not know how strong they are until you put them in hot water.

Well, the Prime Minister David Cameron is certainly in hot water if he believes that he can enforce same-sex ‘marriage’ on Christian churches, and he is as weak as water in his reasoning for pressing ahead on this controversial and unpopular path. Indeed a storm is brewing. It would also appear that Mr Cameron has also shown that fundamental weakness of politicians backed into a corner by mistaking arrogance for strength in his recent correspondence with Bishop Joseph Devine of Motherwell.

Following in the footsteps of First Minister Alex Salmond, Mr Cameron’s government has chosen to ignore the fact that the majority of respondents to his government’s consultation on redefining marriage in fact oppose any change to the status quo of marriage as a union between one man and one woman.

And given the fact that neither the Coalition Government nor the Scottish Government put the policy of redefining marriage on its last election manifesto—therefore neither has a mandate from the electorate to change this fundamental building block of our society—both will be punished by the electorate the next time at the ballot box if they continue down this path of ignoring voters’ wishes.

If this was not such a serious, dire state of affairs it would be nonsensical and laughable that politicians pandering to fad and fashion—to the point of allowing this threat to marriage and family, keystones in our culture— have been allowed to proceed this far.

As Bishop Devine pointed out, should this ill-guided legislative attempt to legalise same-sex ‘marriage’ pass in any shape or form in the UK, how long would it be before this loophole would be used as a fundamental, all-out assault on our religious freedom in parishes, preventing us from passing on Catholic social teaching in our schools and putting Catholic teachers in an impossible situation?

It has been said we live in a post-Christian British society, even an anti-Catholic Scotland. But to legally set aside more than 2000 years of Christian tradition with legislation that the electorate has not voted for is a sign we are failing as a democracy.

As Bishop Devine told Mr Cameron upon identifying the Prime Minister’s double dealing: “You vacillate, ambivalent about the role you wish to perform—the disciple of David or Nero. With such a contradiction between your statements and actions, on what basis can you expect anyone—Christians in particular —to trust or respect you?”