Of socks and men

This week’s hot topic in the media has been whether the Catholic church should be allowed to continue to discriminate between gay couples and other family structures. The church regards certain homosexual practices as deeply sinful and has decided that practicing homosexual’s do not make the best parents for adoption. The media have of course seized on this item for it’s personal, sexual, religious and political content.
It is a question where there is no scientifically provable right answer. Science has not proven whether gays make better or worse parents than anyone else so it has to come down to a judgement. Many, people including church leaders, hold the opinion that practicing homosexuals should be classified, along with paedophiles, murderers and rapists, as unfit to be entrusted with the moral and physical nurturing of young people.
Many other people regard practicing gays as decent and honourable people who should be entitled to the same freedoms as everybody else.
There are a number of additional considerations such as whether the Catholics should receive state funding and continue to discriminate against the gays. Also, the Catholics have an outstanding success rate with problem children.
One of the distinctive features of British life is tolerance of diversity and an ability to live peacably alongside people with different beliefs and practices. This issue has tested our tolerance to the extremes. It has revealed the churches as having a different set of values to the baseline of civil society. Whether their values are a higher standard, as the churches believe, or incompatible with the law, as the others believe, is a moral judgement.
It would be a shame for these agencies to cease their efforts. One of the benefits of the churches in dealing with wayward adolescents is their provision of order, guidelines and rules within which the children can live. Their lives, before and during the adoption years, are often characterised by parents and society’s inability to lay down guidelines. The children test the boundaries and get out of control. The opposite camp are less keen on rules and more keen on children being free to express themsleves without inhibitions.
At the end of the day the church’s stance does not prevent a gay couple from adopting. “Other agencies are available” as they say. State money can still be spent on assisting with this process. The children concerned seem to get a good service and the state gets a discount as the catholic agencies are assisted with volunteers and charitable donations.
This is an issue where there is insufficient evidence of anyone being harmed that there should be a return to the status quo. Less legislation may be better than bad legislation.