Despite the theoretically secular nature of the Canadian government, religion has been thrust into the parliamentary theatre once again due to recent debates and court decisions on homosexual marriage. Constitutional liberties aside, giving spiritual leverage to any argument in this discussion is not only politically backward, it’s downright hypocritical.
Christians have long played the tune of moral superiority when it comes to the acceptance of homosexual relationships, but after years of practiced heterosexual common law, suppressing homosexual marriage is no longer a matter of biblical correctness, it is a matter of legal rights.
Common law couples have existed in abundance since the late 1970s, and have since obtained a legal status of their own. According to the Bible, heterosexual sex outside marriage is as wrong as homosexual sex, yet vociferous Christians hold their tongues on the subject. They practice this kind of relationship and they leave whatever personal opposition they may feel toward common law unions out of governmental debates. When it comes to homosexual rights, marriage becomes a sacred word reserved only for pure, sinless relationships. Christians have somehow imagined their common law activities immune from God’s classifications of bad behavior.
Perhaps, they rationalize, God has grown liberal with the rest of the twenty-first century world. Or maybe God included a few duds on the list of sins that were never really meant to be avoided. Common law sex is fine and dandy, but surely homosexuality is still contemptible. It would never occur to them that if God has grown liberal enough to accept common law, He may also accept homosexual marriage, or that if some sins are duds, homosexuality could well be one of them.
There is obviously an element of hypocrisy here, but in spite of the limited perspective religious persons might have, there are other issues at play–not the least of which is the religious tone of political discussions surrounding this debate. Of course, prejudice, hate and personal insecurity are all elements in the argument against homosexual marriage, none of which are legitimate cases to prevent these unions from being legalized, nor are any of them valid cases to present before a government concerned with the freedom of Canadians.
Unfortunately, religion is undoubtedly at the root of many these negative aspects of this debate, an abuse of a belief system held by precious few Canadians these days. If Canadians were generally devout Christians, concerned first and foremost with upholding biblical standards, perhaps the government should then heed God’s laws. But it does not.
These days religion is not an important factor in the lives of many of those opposed to homosexual marriage, thus these voices must cease to be heard if religion is all they can base their political opinions on. Religion has no place in the politics of this country, especially if it is as insincerely founded as most advocates of common law have proven it to be. Homosexuals are a minority whose liberties need to be preserved, not prevented by a faith forsaken by the majority.