For decades, marriage has been weakened by our culture of convenience and this demoted marriage to little more than emotional intensity or legal privileges.
We should remember that marriage is about the needs of children rather than merely the desires of adults, yet marriage continues to be mocked and undermined after a majority of MSPs approved the first stage of the Marriage and Civil Partnership (Scotland) Bill ("Campaigners hail historic vote on Scotland's same sex marriage laws", The Herald, November 20).
How truly saddening that 98 of our MSPs appear to believe marriage is about nothing more than the love and commitment between two people, irrespective of gender.
Truth be told, marriage brings a man and a woman together as husband and wife to be father and mother to any children their union produces. Marriage is based on the biological fact that reproduction depends on a man and a woman, and the reality that children need a mother and a father. Marriage is the building block of all human civilisation. Marriage has public, not just private, purposes. Marriage is a unique relationship; it brings together sexually complementary spouses, in a monogamous relationship, where they pledge to each other to be faithful by vows of permanence and exclusivity.
The vast majority of people in Scotland know this and it is a crying shame the vast majority of our MSPs do not.
Martin Conroy,
Daisy Cottage,
Oldhamstocks,
East Lothian.
As Holyrood voted for same-sex marriage by 98 to 15, Dr Alan Hamilton, the Kirk's convener on legal questions, sourly noted that it was not unanimous.
But the fact is the Church of Scotland has made no attempt to gauge the level of support for gay marriage among either parish clergy like me or its lay membership.
It relies entirely on the fierce opposition of activists crowding the General Assembly, whereas congregations are more likely to mirror the public's sympathetic views. It is a matter of regret that mainline churches "officially" oppose this long-overdue reform unlike the Quakers, Liberal Jews and other, less doctrinaire, Christian bodies.
Rev Dr John Cameron,
10 Howard Place, St Andrews.
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