Michael Coren
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Christian activists Jonathan Longstaff and Jenny Rose, both from London, protest outside Parliament before a vote on same-sex marriage in London Feb. 5. (CNS photo/Chris Helgren, Reuters)

It was only a matter of time, really. Britain, the country of my birth and my home for the first 28 years of my life, has legalized same-sex marriage.

The Conservative government had not in any way campaigned for it during the election, and Prime Minister David Cameron had effectively said he would not pursue it, as had the gay lobby and its political champions. The United Kingdom, you see, had introduced civil partnerships for homosexuals in 2004, and one of the reasons the proposal was passed was because its backers gave their word that it was not “a stepping stone but the end of the road.” That was always a lie—they knew it was always a lie, and gay marriage was always the intention. Just as the same people are lying now when they say that nobody will be punished, prosecuted, or dismissed for opposing the phenomenon or refusing to teach and proclaim it. The Guardian newspaper has already featured an article by a national celebrity—a star on the iconic British soap Coronation Street—calling for churches that refuse to perform same-sex weddings to be penalized and worse. In Britain even the B-list actors are political and write acid editorials!
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The Church of England has been placed in an impossible position, because the newly appointed Archbishop of Canterbury is an evangelical, and as head of the established church he publicly and loudly opposes the Prime Minister. The Muslim community is further distanced from the mainstream, and is incredulous at the decision. Then there is, well, us—the Roman Catholics. Britain is only 8 percent Catholic, and in some regions the number falls to below 5 percent. Small, somewhat besieged, historically persecuted, still disliked in much of Scotland, and now to be hit very hard indeed with the bludgeon of that most convenient hammer, called “homophobia.”

It’s going to be a difficult time for British Catholics, but then it’s not supposed to be easy being a member of the institution founded by Jesus Christ. They, as well as every other Catholic, need to know the reasons for the Church’s stance on homosexuality and, by extension, so-called gay marriage. Obviously there are biblical and sacramental reasons for marriage being between only one man and one woman, and ones that I don’t have time to discuss here, but we must also remember that Catholic teaching is based on natural law. The entire same-sex marriage argument is not so much about the rights of a sexual minority but the status and meaning of marriage.

Indeed, the deconstruction of marriage began not with the gay community asking for the right to marry but with the heterosexual world rejecting marriage itself. The term “common-law marriage” says it all. Marriage is many things but it is never common. Yet with this semantic and legal revolution, desire and convenience have replaced commitment and dedication. The qualifications, so to speak, have been lowered.