I can respect your belief, and I think you rationalized your position well.
Thank you
I agree with Cougarbear. They say that Western civilization was founded on two ("spiritual") cities: Athens and Jerusalem. With respect to "Jerusalem", for two thousand years the Christian Church has continuously played a major role in the development of our (Western) culture. The term "marriage" still refers, by default, to a Christian institution. In a Christian marriage, a male and a female swear before God that they will always love each other, and always remain faithful to each other ("Till death do us part"), come what may. It is a sacred contract, a sacrament. In a sense, the main purpose of marriage is to provide a stable, loving foundation for the rearing of children. The so-called "Nuclear Family" comprised of a married husband and wife and their biological children has always provided the fundamental building block of society in the West. In fact, long before Christianity, the "Nuclear Family" of a Father, a Mother, and their children was the basic unit that formed the social fabric of all civilized human societies that managed to emerge over the past 6000 years
Correct me if I'm wrong, but the Christian Church does not permit the marriage of homosexual couples, because this is forbidden in Holy Scripture. So when "gay" marriage has been legalised in countries like: the UK, Australia and Ireland, it has meant that "gay" couples were permitted to enter into a Civil Law Marriage. I think the main concern I have about this is that if a homosexual couple are married in civil law, it legally entitle them to adopt and raise children. (If I have this wrong, please correct me). My concern is that adopted children should( necessarily) have a mother and a father; not two "fathers" or two "mothers". The later is unnatural and whenever the law of nature (the Natural Moral Law) is breached there are almost always harmful consequences. Already psychological research has clearly shown that boys brought up in families where there is no (adult male) father tend to acquire a range of social dysfunctions/impairments (often serious) as they mature. Otherwise, there is not a great deal of research that has been conducted into the developmental progress and life outcomes for children adopted by homosexual parents; though as a scientist my instincts tell me that if any such research is done in the future, the findings will not be positive.
Please tell me if I am miunderstanding this, but the whole idea of legalising gay marriage was basically to allow gay couples to adopt children. Do I have this right ? There was a TREMENDOUS fuss made about legalising gay marriage in Australia. The government decided to hold a referendum on the issue, and in the run-up to voting day there was more madness and hoopla than you would see for an American Presidential election.
Again, speaking as a scientist, my opinion is that homosexuality IS a
bone fide psychiatric disorder, when I say this, BTW, I am not suggesting that gay persons are all lunatics or "barking mad". Homosexuality was always classified as a paraphilia (sexual psychiatric disorder) in the US, until "gay" activists brought intense political pressure to bear on the American Psychiatric Association in 1975, forcing them to delete homosexuality as a psychiatric disorder from the DSM (America's official Diagnostic reference for mental disorders). I think that this was a mistake, and as far as
male homosexuality is concerned, I believe, it is a genetic mental disorder (there is some evidence to supports this) I cannot comment with regard to lesbians, however, as female sexuality is far more complex than male sexuality, and as far as I know, female homosexuality has never been the subject of any kind of substantial, scientific research investigation/s.
Finally, I think it is a mistake to imagine that a given homosexual couple in a civil marriage are "more or less" identical to a given heterosexual couple who were married in a Christian ceremony, the only difference being that the former happen to be the same (biological) sex. If we just consider male homosexuality for a moment, I would point out that male homosexuals have a wide-spread reputation for promiscuity (which is not a trait that is very compatible with marriage and childrearing), and to a lesser extent, other deviant sexual behaviours (paraphilias). Naturally, there is no hard empirical research to confirm any of these claims, merely anecdotal evidence. But this ,in itself, highlights the fact that there is a dearth of factual, scientific knowledge respecting the behaviours of gay men (and women). And given that homosexuality is not classified as a legitimate, psychiatric disorder anymore, it is unlikely, I think, that any further scientific research will be conducted into homosexual behaviours in the condition in the future.
