Challenges to same-sex marriage debate

I NOTE the predictable howls of opprobrium directed against the Catholic Church for daring to express concern about the proposal by the SNP government to allow same-sex couples to formally marry in churches. If, like other couples, same-sex couples can already have their relationship recognised in a civil ceremony, why push the limits by requiring a religious ceremony too?

I am not religious and have no theological axe to grind, but if this proposal is not challenged by some official body with some clout, then how can it be challenged?

Marriage in a church is between a man and a woman and there is no obvious reason to change that. This latest move is more about the SNP grubbing for votes instead of trying to stabilise an already unstable society.

Brian Allan

Keith Street

Kincardine-on-Forth

Alloa

IT HAS been interesting to read the reports on the increasingly homophobic rants from the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Scotland and the reaction of our political masters.

Had similar language and tone been invoked to attack Catholics, it is certain that politicians would have been at the head of the queue to denounce it. Why do our MSPs appear to condone this?

Alistair McBay

Lawmuirview

Methven

OVER the past fortnight we’ve had to endure various self-styled equality and human rights activists (read, gay activists) and the Scottish Roman Catholic church attacking each other over gay marriage.

That has been tortuous enough. But when some newspapers columnists start claiming the issue could bring down the Scottish government and my old Glasgow University philosophy teacher Paul Brownsey starts making claims about homosexuals being more faithful than heterosexuals (Letters, 13 September), it’s time to cry “Enough!”

The whole notion of gay marriage is part and parcel of dumbing down everything on the pretext that no-one feels “left out” or “excluded”. Is it that hard to get the message why so many are objecting to a redefinition of a concept that will achieve nothing (apart from a lawyers’ beanfeast in dealing with the inevitable rash of gay divorces)?

Mark Boyle

Linn Park Gardens

Johnstone