Church morality

Published on 14/02/2013 00:00

Norman Bonney (Letters, 13 February) did his best to make the Catholic Church sound like an oppressive dictatorship, when it is a voluntary association.

The fact that millions of women choose to adhere to churches whose teaching conflicts with feminist orthodoxy ought to give doctrinaire feminists cause to question whether their own dogma is necessarily the only valid representation of women’s interests.

Dr John Cameron (Letters, same day) accused papal possible Cardinal Arinze of “equating gay love with pornography and infanticide”. The Christian sexual ethic confines sex to marriage between a man and a woman, and the further sexual activity deviates from this ideal, 
the more morally problematic it becomes.

On this basis, one could argue that homosexual activity is more sinful than pornography use.

Dr Cameron also objected to Cardinal Turkson’s perfectly reasonable statement that “moral issues are more important than human rights”.

Human rights take on a life of their own when they lose their grounding in sound moral principle, leading to spurious applications and conscription in dubious causes.

I have no idea who the new Pope will be, but I am confident he will be another intelligent and Godly man who will contend for the Christian faith without fear of favour.

He will face ridicule and sheer hatred from many secularists, but he will not scrape around for popularity like our unprincipled political leaders.

Instead, he will perform his appointed role as a communicator of God’s timeless truth.

Richard Lucas

Broomyknowe

Edinburgh