Wednesday, February 06, 2013

...and on to the next stage...

...of the Government's ghastly and insane scheme to redefine marriage.

It is horrible to watch a once-great nation having this cruel rubbish foisted upon it.

A terrible and tragic day.

Keep praying.  The number of Tory MPs voting against the Bill indicates that the real fight is only just beginning. There is a long hard road ahead, and the fight to defend marriage is one that will never be surrendered: the Bill now has to be fought clause by clause in the Commons and the Lords, and meanwhile the battle in the culture is one that will be played out for a long long time and obviously eventually the cause of truth will triumph.

But how horrible to know that history will record that the British Parliament did actually at one time vote to pretend that men could marry men and women could marry women. And how sad it is to be in London witnessing this, living through this, knowing that this insanity is happening in the country which once contributed so much to the world and had a quality of real greatness about it.


11 comments:

Jonathan said...

We have had same sex marriage for 9 years already. Since the Gender Recognition Act 2004 a man can legally become a woman by wearing a dress for 2 years. There is no requirement for sex reassignment surgery. A couple who both have male sex organs have been able to marry since then. We lost this battle before we even knew it had started

Anonymous said...

Indeed! I watched much of the debate and found myself really inspired and filled with hope,though, despite the loss. I was so grateful to those brave, eloquent speakers, opposing the bill in such numbers. I was so impressed by their foresight and clarity. They need our gratitude and continuing support!

Dee said...

I feel so terrible for England that the government is foisting so-called "gay marriage" onto the people. I am from Massachusetts, and legalized gay marriage here has been awful.

The schools, especially, become very emboldened and ignore parental rights--and as a result, my children now have to learn about gay families in Kindergarten.

Katie said...

Thanks for saying how sad and demeaning this whole sorry affair is. The deja vue aspect of it for us catholics is not very wonderful either. My impression is, though, that a lot of well meaning people haven't really thought about the implications of this bill yet. There may be more support for the rebels than there seems to be at present. For example the French Bill has a provision for surrogacy paid for by their equivalent of the NHS. Is this where we want to go? On a related matter, the Holy Father is supporting the europe wide movement 'Uno di Noi/One of Us' which aims to defund abortions paid for with taxes.

Anonymous said...

Hello Joanna, Really just wanted say hello and hope you don't get worn out with it all as I have. The method to their madness is to wear any opposition down/out. They use it in everything they see the need. It is at least a bit encouraging that as many conservative voted against.Take care.

Anonymous said...

I agree with all of this, but can't help feeling we are reaping the result of our failure to stop divorce and same sex civil partnerships - the nearer the stone gets to the foot of the hill, the harder it is to stop it rolling.

Anonymous said...

+JMJ+

@Dee,

I pray that you will place your child in a different environment. Please protect them from this. Even if you have to home school them to avoid this. It is criminal to teach a young innocent soul that this is OK.

God Bless.

Manny said...

It really is a sad day. It's absurd. We live in a world that is a farce.

Alistair Scott said...

Dear Auntie Joanna,

You say ‘keep praying’ and I’m intrigued to know what you expect from all this praying.

I’m assuming that your God considers homosexual marriage morally wrong – as you do. So you are praying and praying and praying for him to stop it from being legalised. But nothing is happening. It’s already legal in a number of other countries and it soon will be so in the UK.

What does this mean? Several possibilities:

1. Not enough of you are praying, or you’re not praying hard enough. If that’s the case, what does that say about your God? He’s prepared to let what he considers immoral acts, and ones that are offensive to you, be legalised because you’re not beseeching him hard enough?

2. God doesn’t care. Again, what does that say about Him?

3. God cares, but he's left us humans to our own devices – free will and all that. So why bother praying? You’re asking him to change a decision He’s already made, just this once, just for your sensibilities?

4. God works in mysterious ways. That supposes he has some master plan that we don’t know about that includes the legalisation of homosexual marriage. So, isn’t it very presumptuous of you to ask Him to change that, just for you and a few others?

5. Allied to the ‘mysterious ways’ point ... God’s going to let this go so far and then put a stop to it in one way or another. So again – why are you praying? And why’s he playing with you like this?

6. God doesn’t exist. So there’s no one to hear your prayers anyway.

Maybe I’ve missed something, I don’t know. But it seems that, in any event, all your praying is an utter waste of time.

I’d be really interested to hear your take on this. And please don’t just say I don’t understand. No, I don’t understand but I was once teacher, and when one of my pupils didn’t understand I did my level best to help him/her.

If you can help me understand you may even have a convert!

Anonymous said...


A tentative reply to some of Alistair's many points, in the hope that your mind is as open as you say it is:

para 1 - sure, we're not praying hard enough. And more generally, if our faith was stronger then we would be better placed to convince others of its merits.

para 3 - free will, yes of course. But we are only free to do what is right. Read your Dostoyevsky? Raskolnikov tries to do what is not right and look where it got him. Why bother praying? Because Christ whom we try to follow told us to.

para 4 - The Lord does work in mysterious ways. But we are pretty sure that same sex marriage is not part of his plan. The Christian view of human sexuality, while evolving over the centuries, has remained consistent. Whereas the gay agenda is a novelty, dreamed up last Tuesday by and for a tiny metropolitan clique.

para 5 - Sadly it seems that yet another revolution in human behaviour will have to play itself out before we collectively return to our senses. And as with every revolution, it will be the weak and vulnerable who pay the heaviest price, not clever people like you.

Catholic morality is based on scripture and reason but is always aimed at defending what is really best for us. I suppose that you genuinely believe that the post 1960s liberalisation of sexual mores has been a change for the better, despite the oceans of evidence to the contrary, that its has caused human misery on a colossal scale - STDs, abortion, broken marriages, fertility issues, fatherless children, poverty ...

Anonymous said...

It was truly heartbreaking to see so many Tories come up with such weak arguments against equal marriage, some of whom have themselves made such a mess of their own marriages. Of particular interest were the DUP representatives, considering that N Ireland is not affected by this legislation. Their contributions made it clear just how far the opposition is from our Lord's teaching.