But it is not his grammar which needs correcting so much as his assumptions. He writes for a very noisy minority. We have a duty to get the voices of the less noisy (even silent) majority heard whenever possible. What follows I have sent to the Editor, but I have little hope of its appearing in the Speccy, so here it is for you, my select readership.
'Hugo Rifkind has written that “Gay Marriage is going to
happen, and that’s a fact”. Then he says that civil gay marriage will not
inevitably lead to churches being forced to conduct gay marriages – “There
surely cannot be many people, gay or otherwise, who want to antagonistically
get married in a place that really doesn’t want them.” Where does Hugo Rifkind
get his news? Has he not read about the boarding house owners who were plagued
with gay couples determined to make them toe the PC line? Once the State admits
to gay marriage, the pressure will immediately be on the churches to follow
suit – most especially the Church of England as the Established Church, but after them all the rest of us..
He asserts that the only real argument against gay marriage
is the Christian one; and since I am a Christian that means he can safely
ignore anything I write. But perhaps part of the reason I am a Christian is
because the Church’s stand on gay issues [as also on abortion on demand and assisted
suicide on demand] seems to me entirely consonant with being human. He might
not have noticed, but historically Humanism began in the Christian world.
Gay couples can already have a Civil Union, with all the
benefits which accrue to married couples. Why do they want to hijack the
language of Marriage? (though in fact many of them do not). A union between two
women or two men may be the equivalent of marriage; but it is not the same. “I
am in favour of gay marriage even if gays aren’t” he writes. There is
generosity of spirit for you! What Mr Rifkind believes, everyone must believe.
I suppose any argument from design carries no weight with
him; but in case he has not noticed, the union between a woman and a man can
result in procreation, the union (however achieved) between same-sex couples
cannot. It is the first reason for marriage, God given as many of us would say.
Which is why the language of marriage -
husband and wife, father and mother - must be protected. Or does he want us to
go down the route of Brighton City Council and forbid us to say or write "father
and mother"? Try as he may, he is the one who is going to fail in the end, by
ignoring human nature.'
