Cardinal points

Published on 25/07/2012 00:00

The claim that the gay marriage dispute is not an “equalities issue” (Letters, 24 July) is almost as absurd as the belief that marriage is an immutable creation of the church.

In view of the fact that he represents an institution which claims to be on the side of the oppressed, I find Cardinal O’Brien’s rhetoric on gay marriage truly disturbing.

How can his church provide spiritual comfort to its many thousands of gay members while he uses words like “grotesque” and “disordered” to
describe their sexuality?

My gay Christian friends did not choose to be gay and rightly believe this is how God intended them to be and their sexual orientation is part of His plan for their lives.

The cardinal accepts that people are born gay but he argues that if two gay children of God have their union blessed in his church, Christian marriage will be undermined.

This is a completely idiotic contention, as is the assertion that no European institution
licensed to conduct marriages can opt out if gay marriage is on the statute book.

The European Court has cited article 9 of the Convention on Human Rights (freedom of 
religious expression) to support opt-outs in the eight nations with such legislation.

(DR) JOHN CAMERON

Howard Place

St Andrews

Alex Wood rehearses the current “good homosexual” “bad Christian” dichotomy (“Civil rights valued over religious prejudice”, Perspective, 24 July).

Ascribing saintliness to homosexuals and equating Christian opinion with prejudice denies the fair balance of two millennia of history.

There are too many errors in Alex Wood’s article to highlight in a short letter but his examples of changes in the nature of marriage are nothing of the sort.

Paul’s New Testament Letter to the Romans speaks critically of lesbianism. There are recently published articulate, balanced academic reflections of Christian viewpoints in Embracing Truth, (Handsel Press, Haddington, 2012).

Christians who enter this public debate do so knowing that they will be excoriated and that the media are against them. We are not seeking to maintain power since we have none.

Roman Catholic moral theology has a long and controversial history. Why should Cardinal O’Brien subject himself to public abuse?

He has a pastoral concern and responsibility for the good of human society.

Protestants wish to share the best of our understanding of the teaching of Jesus Christ. We can do no other.

(Rev Dr) Robert 
Anderson

Blackburn & Seafield Church

MacDonald Gardens

Blackburn, West Lothian