You could put on a pair of Dobby's Chinos and go to the Church of England's General Synod to learn about gender experimentation, women bishops and gayness. Or you could go to the Humanum Colloquium in Rome to learn about the complementary nature of man and woman. I'd rather clean my guns than go to the former. The latter? Different story.
Here's a few short excerpts from Lord Sacks' outstanding address to the Colloquium:
"For a whole variety of reasons, some to do with medical developments like birth control, in vitro fertilisation and other genetic interventions, some to do with moral change like the idea that we are free to do whatever we like so long as it does not harm others, some to do with a transfer of responsibilities from the individual to the state, and other and more profound changes in the culture of the West, almost everything that marriage once brought together has now been split apart. Sex has been divorced from love, love from commitment, marriage from having children, and having children from responsibility for their care."
After listing some unfortunate statistics, Sacks continues, in defense of the family:
"But our compassion for those who choose to live differently should not inhibit us from being advocates for the single most humanising institution in history. The family, man, woman, and child, is not one lifestyle choice among many. It is the best means we have yet discovered for nurturing future generations and enabling children to grow in a matrix of stability and love. It is where we learn the delicate choreography of relationship and how to handle the inevitable conflicts within any human group. It is where we first take the risk of giving and receiving love. It is where one generation passes on its values to the next, ensuring the continuity of a civilization. For any society, the family is the crucible of its future, and for the sake of our children’s future, we must be its defenders."
The U.K.'s former Chief Rabbi ends with an exegesis of Genesis (3:19). Here's his conclusion (note, the Hebrew words for skin and light are virtually the same):
"At that moment, as they were about to leave Eden and face the world as we know it, a place of darkness, Adam gave his wife the first gift of love, a personal name. And at that moment, God responded to them both in love, and made them garments to clothe their nakedness, or as Rabbi Meir put it, “garments of light.”
"And so it has been ever since, that when a man and woman turn to one another in a bond of faithfulness, God robes them in garments of light, and we come as close as we will ever get to God himself, bringing new life into being, turning the prose of biology into the poetry of the human spirit, redeeming the darkness of the world by the radiance of love."
If you're wise, you'll waste no time and read the whole thing.
God bless,
LSP
