For the last few days (I haven't been able to find out exactly how long) the following advert has been showing on buses all over London, sponsored by Stonewall, in support of gay marriage:
Yesterday afternoon, the Guardian reported that Christian group the Core Issues Trust (which is against gay marriage), was about to run its own advertising campaign in response, deliberately mimicking the format used by Stonewall:
This advertising campaign had been agreed by Transport for London and passed by the Committee of Advertising Practise, and was about to go ahead when London Mayor Boris Johnson intervened, by ordering transport chiefs to pull the advert.
Not very many years ago, homosexuals were a persecuted minority in this country and I have to hold my hands up and say that sadly, certainly some, and probably quite a lot of the oppression and persecution that homosexuals have experienced has been at the hands of hard-line evangelical "Christians". This was a sorry state of affairs (and still is in many circles) and campaigning groups like Stonewall have done an excellent and effective job of redressing this imbalance. However, they have unfortunately also done a good job of vilifying anyone who disagrees with them, to the extent that the words, "prejudice", "bigotry" and "homophobia" are now automatically bandied about whenever anyone tries to suggest that their preferred solutions might not always be in their own or the rest of society's best interests.
I have what could probably be termed an "evangelical" approach to sex. This doesn't mean - in case you were wondering - that I go around telling everyone how great it is and trying to make people do more of it! (I do think sex is great though and I have been known to say so publicly on occasion!). This does mean that I have a particular perspective on what sex is and what it is for.
To me (and to many others like me), sex and the body are sacred. Sex is an amazing and beautiful process by which two people of opposite and complementing gender are united as one in holy and intimate love. Through this process a new "entity" is formed, which incorporates both (and becomes the potential basis for a new family). This is why evangelical Christians tend to reject most forms of sexual intimacy outside of a committed, life-long, heterosexual relationship.
"Gay marriage" attempts to redefine what this unit can consist of. It is natural and obvious that two people of the same gender who love and are sexually attracted to one another will want to express that attraction and live or even spend their lives together, but this is not the same thing as a "marriage" in the conventional sense. Gay couples cannot biologically have children and do not bring two complementing gender identities to a relationship. As for those who go on to adopt or artificially conceive children - psychologists have long understood that in a heterosexually based family both genders play important roles at different stages in a child's development. This is not something that a gay couple is able to offer. In my opinion then, a committed gay relationship and a heterosexual marriage are not equivalent or equal - however much some might want them to be - and it is unfair of homosexual campaigners to pretend otherwise, or to try to redefine the language that we have been using for hundreds of years in order to push this agenda on the rest of us.
Yesterday afternoon, the Guardian reported that Christian group the Core Issues Trust (which is against gay marriage), was about to run its own advertising campaign in response, deliberately mimicking the format used by Stonewall:
This advertising campaign had been agreed by Transport for London and passed by the Committee of Advertising Practise, and was about to go ahead when London Mayor Boris Johnson intervened, by ordering transport chiefs to pull the advert.
Not very many years ago, homosexuals were a persecuted minority in this country and I have to hold my hands up and say that sadly, certainly some, and probably quite a lot of the oppression and persecution that homosexuals have experienced has been at the hands of hard-line evangelical "Christians". This was a sorry state of affairs (and still is in many circles) and campaigning groups like Stonewall have done an excellent and effective job of redressing this imbalance. However, they have unfortunately also done a good job of vilifying anyone who disagrees with them, to the extent that the words, "prejudice", "bigotry" and "homophobia" are now automatically bandied about whenever anyone tries to suggest that their preferred solutions might not always be in their own or the rest of society's best interests.
I have what could probably be termed an "evangelical" approach to sex. This doesn't mean - in case you were wondering - that I go around telling everyone how great it is and trying to make people do more of it! (I do think sex is great though and I have been known to say so publicly on occasion!). This does mean that I have a particular perspective on what sex is and what it is for.
To me (and to many others like me), sex and the body are sacred. Sex is an amazing and beautiful process by which two people of opposite and complementing gender are united as one in holy and intimate love. Through this process a new "entity" is formed, which incorporates both (and becomes the potential basis for a new family). This is why evangelical Christians tend to reject most forms of sexual intimacy outside of a committed, life-long, heterosexual relationship.
"Gay marriage" attempts to redefine what this unit can consist of. It is natural and obvious that two people of the same gender who love and are sexually attracted to one another will want to express that attraction and live or even spend their lives together, but this is not the same thing as a "marriage" in the conventional sense. Gay couples cannot biologically have children and do not bring two complementing gender identities to a relationship. As for those who go on to adopt or artificially conceive children - psychologists have long understood that in a heterosexually based family both genders play important roles at different stages in a child's development. This is not something that a gay couple is able to offer. In my opinion then, a committed gay relationship and a heterosexual marriage are not equivalent or equal - however much some might want them to be - and it is unfair of homosexual campaigners to pretend otherwise, or to try to redefine the language that we have been using for hundreds of years in order to push this agenda on the rest of us.