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macnumpty
Getting on a bit!
Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 1858
Location: Exiled down south.
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 Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 8:59 pm Post subject: Another LGBT post |
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In which I have another rant about gay rights. Shame, really, I'd actually been on the Catholic Church's side for a couple of days, but Bishop Devine has blown that.
My blog isn't supposed to be a blog that discusses LGBT rights, it's meant to be a blog that discusses the various little snippets of intrigue that take place in Scotland's corridors of power, the meaning behind them and the possible consequences. But reading the utter dreck written by Bishop Joseph Devine in the Sunday Herald, I'm publishing my own response. I'm not a rights campaigner. Really, I'm not. But sometimes a response is needed. Particularly this paragraph, which nearly caused me to rupture several blood vessels:
| Quote: | Our governments in Westminster and Holyrood have dared not whisper the terms marriage and the traditional family for fear of being branded politically incorrect by the liberal secular lobby. They have signed up to the dangerous fiction that all lifestyles are equal and that all types of family are equally good at bringing up children. It is time to challenge them to change the direction of their social policies and recognise the damage caused by their compliance with liberal secular policy advisers.
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In a way, he's right about one thing. No one has mentioned 'marriage', when perhaps they should have. That is why the Scottish Executive opted to pass the political hot potato that is civil partnerships to Westminster, and why they are called 'civil partnerships' in the first place. It looks like marriage, the legal rights are akin to marriage, but oh, no, don't call it marriage because that might annoy the Church even more. Why should we be fobbed off? Why not call it marriage? That's what civil partnerships basically are, so what's wrong with telling it like it is? It was fear of a reaction from social conservatives that led to a completely new branch of legal terminology being created simply to describe the application of an existing concept (i.e. marriage) in a new way (i.e. to two people of the same gender). And why do Church leaders keep talking about the 'sanctity' of marriage, when the concept has existed at a legal State level, outwith the purview of any religion for so long?
Then there's his dangerous assertion, implicit in his attack, that certain lifestyles are unequal, and that not all types of family are equally good at bringing up children. Well, the Bishop, again, is almost right. A stable, heterosexual, two-parent family can obviously provide a good, solid background for a child. It can also be an absolute disaster. Things can go wrong in a single-parent family, but the children involved can turn out to be real stars, active pillars of the community. Things can go very well or very badly for children who are cared for by same-sex couples. The issue isn't the gender or number of the people involved: it's the individuals. If they devote the time and energy to looking after a child, then he or she will turn out fine. If their idea of parenting is to shove a bag of crisps in the child's hand and then leave them to their own devices for two hours, then you can bet that things will go wrong.
The Bishop has missed the point: liberal secular values are here to stay. There are one-parent families. There are people who prefer to involve themselves in same-sex relationships. The genie can no longer be put back in the bottle. And even if it could, how far back in time would we have to go until we arrived at a point where there was one sole religion, practiced by all, around which it would be sensible to build a legal system? A liberal, tolerant, secular society is needed for that very reason: that we can all have the freedom to take a full part in society, regardless of what faith, if any, we're a part of.
My right to take a male partner, and to adopt a child with him, does not infringe on Joseph Devine's right to practice his Catholic faith. His right to offer religious guidance to members of his Church does not infringe on my right to be a practicing homosexual. As readers know, I oppose any attempts to force the Catholic Church into a policy that they consider contrary to their beliefs. I oppose any writings by Devine in which he condemns my way of life, especially as, when I do so, I will harm no one and the other party is a consenting adult as I am.
Compare this with the clergymen in his Church who sexually assaulted young boys, and whose exploitative, destructive actions have been hushed up for decades. If the Bishop wants to oppose homosexuality, he should do so within the confines of his own Church before he rails against the outside world.
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^ ^ This is Bunny. Bunny wishes that he was on the electoral roll in Glenrothes, so he could vote for Peter Grant. He also reminds you to read the Our Scotland Blog. |
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I need ma own bl**dy forum!
Joined: 26 Jun 2006
Posts: 1214
Location: Dùn Eideann
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| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:26 pm Post subject: |
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I can almost see your veins popping and the smoke coming out of your ears there.
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"Quite simply, Labour have been caught red-handed so often that no-one believes a word they say any more." |
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macnumpty
Getting on a bit!
Joined: 11 Feb 2006
Posts: 1858
Location: Exiled down south.
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| Posted: Sun Feb 04, 2007 9:53 pm Post subject: |
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Yes. This is why I try to stay off the topic as much as I can. I try to stay moderate on the issue but every now and then there's a sort of mini-Peter Tatchell inside me, screaming to get out.
That is in itself disturbing: Peter Tatchell is one the list of people I'd just love to give a good slapping if ever I met them, the sanctimonious little whinger that he is! 
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^ ^ This is Bunny. Bunny wishes that he was on the electoral roll in Glenrothes, so he could vote for Peter Grant. He also reminds you to read the Our Scotland Blog. |
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Fidget
No Longer a Wean
Joined: 21 Jan 2007
Posts: 68
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| Posted: Thu Feb 08, 2007 3:00 pm Post subject: |
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| macnumpty wrote: |
Peter Tatchell is one the list of people I'd just love to give a good slapping if ever I met them, the sanctimonious little whinger that he is! |
I've met him. Well kind of anyway. He came over and had a brief chat to my mate when we were having a beer in a bar in london. I did recognise him but couldn't place him. Wasn't til he went away that the penny dropped. But yes, I agree, a good slap wouldn't go amiss at times. |
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