Christianity has no single claim to marriage rights

Whereas Cardinal O’Brien (your report, 8 September) said that gay marriage would be a “direct” attack on the institution of marriage, Richard Lucas (Letters, 10 September) seems to see it as an indirect attack, saying it is part of “a wider liberal agenda” that denies the centrality of stable family structure with child-rearing by biological parents” and thus “undermines marriage and harms society as a result.”

It is perhaps too easy to regard the so-called liberal agenda as a seamless whole that does not allow separate assessment of different changes.

Certainly, even if we grant the premise that some changes in the past 50 years have decreased family stability and caused some misery and damage, especially to children, it should be remembered that it is not homosexuals who are responsible for the phenomena in question.

In the main, it is not homosexuals who have walked out on spouses and children because they fancy new partners, self-deceiving themselves that such a break is “better for the children”; it is not homosexuals who are responsible for what some regard as the problem of single-parent families.

Denying marriage to homo- sexuals (who may be clamouring for the very legal bond that Mr Lucas laments has been undermined) because of the supposed sins of heterosexuals looks very much like making a scapegoat of homosexuals – rather like a wife beating the dog because her husband has left her.

PAUL BROWNSEY

Larchfield Road

Bearsden, Glasgow