THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN GAY ADOPTION ...

HE WINTER ROW about the legal right of gay partners to adopt was worrying. By general consent, Catholic Adoption Agencies do wonderful work. Were they to close down, because of a conflict between the law of the land and the law of the Church, many children in need of fostering and adopting might be less well cared for. On the surface of it, the problem was that Catholic Adoption Agencies receive public money and public money should not be given to those who practise unlawful discrimination. Deeper down, a conflict is developing in our society between the law of the land and the law of God, and it is that tension which is most worrying.

It's not just the law of the Church which is at stake, but the covenant between God and Man, as revealed in the Bible. I am not here arguing about gay adoption, the latest twist in the civil partnerships row. My own view is that the interests of children come first and that whatever can be done in the interests of children should be done. We live in a world of single parents and unmarried parents, many of whom are doing wonderfully well in difficult circumstances. We live too in a world of abusive marriages and fleeting partnerships where adoptive and foster parents, many single - some of homosexual orientation - come valiantly to the rescue of vulnerable children.

No, the conflict between the law of the land and the law of God is not about any one issue. Since the Enlightenment, several other countries have tried to get by without reference to God. Secular France and Bolshevik Russia wrote God out of the script. Nazi Germany, more frighteningly, re-invented God as a monster in its own image. We are in the midst of another push by the secularists to make religious faith seem narrow-minded, prudish and unreasonable. The European Union tries to get by without reference to God. Journalists question whether Roman Catholics can or should be in politics. Evangelicals are routinely laughed at as 'creationists' and 'fundamentalists'. There are misleading stories about emptying churches and a frightening ignorance in public life about the basics of the Christian story - or basic courtesies, such as how to refer to the clergy. A TV bulletin recently spoke of reading someone 'their last rights' when it meant administering 'the last rites'.

The multifaith and multicultural society, with lofty laws way above religious dogma, might seem an attractive idea but on what, exactly, are such laws to be based? A sentimental memory of Sunday School - be nice to each other - or what? As Sunday School memories fade, why not look to other instincts? Empower the strong, eliminate the weak? The state is everything and the individual nothing? If you think this alarmist talk, look again at what happened in Stalin's Russia and Hitler's Germany. Those in this country who live their lives without reference to God or his holy law are often conscientious people but none of them has come up yet with adequate principles on which ethics and morality could be based. Or is natural selection - the survival of the fittest - what they are really offering us? If so, we should face family planning, health care and old age with some trepidation.

May God bless you as you prepare to celebrate the resurrection of Jesus Christ. He has shown us 'the new and living way' to God (Hebrews 10:20).

+ Andrew Ebbsfleet



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