Marriage, throughout history, infers a union between a man and a woman. It is the natural union that produces children and continues the human race.

Every human civilisation has recognised a few fundamental qualities of marriage.

• Marriage is always between a man and a woman.
• Marriage is about the future generations of mankind.
• Marriage regulates the sexual relationships between men and women.
• Marriage must be a lasting union for the children to develop into mature adulthood.

It has been proven that a loving mother and father, working together, are much more likely to bring up their children to be well-adjusted young adults.

American statistical information has shown that any lessening of that ideal or any other union brings problems for the children.

The Church, the United Nations General Assembly and most world governments recognise that the natural family is the basic cell of society, and that governments exist to protect the family and provide the structures necessary that they may provide for themselves and others.

Same-sex unions, though tolerated in some places, have never been regarded as normal, moral equivalents of natural marriage.

What some radicals, and now some countries like Holland , Spain and Canada , are promoting is that societies accept a redefinition of marriage that will also change the meaning of father, mother, husband and wife. Male and female, father and mother, husband and wife will become meaningless terms.

Yet no society in the past has ever allowed people to make their own rules of relationships. All societies need people to live within specified rules, developed over the history of human civilisations, to protect each other's human rights, especially within marriage and family.

Marriage is built on the nature of humanity - that we exist as male and female, designed by God with profound differences, which are brought together in marriage so that each contributes what the other does not have by nature.

These differences are critical for the balanced upbringing of children. The lack of either influence will profoundly affect the child, whether boy or girl. In same-sex unions, children will be deprived of either the biological father or mother and their beneficial influence.

Same-sex "marriage" would turn marriage into something it has never been in any other civilisation at any time in history.

Natural marriage would be robbed of its unique virtue in bringing men and women into a cooperative relationship where they complete one another in their differences.

The argument used in "legitimising" same-sex marriage would open the way for any type of "marriage", which is also on the radical agenda being promoted at present in the USA .

It is very important to be vigilant and aware of the campaigns being waged in the "developed" countries. Through the influence of international organisations such as the United Nations and non-governmental organisations and the influence of the European Union and North America , these campaigns are being introduced worldwide.

We must not be shortsighted by just looking at what local groups are saying or denying. These overseas influences are pervasive and adopted by local liberal thinkers who, often having rejected God, are without Godly wisdom and unable to see the dangers in the ways they are seeking to promote.

Need more information or have comments? Please feel free to contact us at Emmanuel Community - 628-1064, 628-1586.