Commentary by Fr. Paul K. Nicholson
The Interim
At a time when the Liberal government has tried to expunge all references to personal faith and religious belief from public discourse, it is quite remarkable that a senator in Ottawa now invokes the name of Jesus and uses her misinformed religious views as the basis for her support for Bill C-38.
Religious leaders, involved for months in the titanic struggle to defeat Bill C-38, have carefully avoided using religiously based arguments. For their part, they have made their case convincing by presenting arguments based in logic and a variety of human sciences. Human reason alone decries Bill C-38.
Why does Senator Marilyn Trenholme Counsell feel the need to refer to Jesus Christ? I think it is because she, as well her colleagues, have been greatly intimidated by the strong and powerful opposition coming from every major religious body in Canada to Bill C-38. Foolishly, Ms. Trenholme Counsell thinks she can overcome this major strategic hurdle for her government. It is a terrible miscalculation that shows her political naivete and her ignorance of orthodox Christianity.
The most blistering words of Christ recorded in sacred Scripture were for those who would harm, injure or scandalize little children. The guilty ones should be “drowned with a millstone” (Matt. 18:6, Mark 9:42, Lk 17:2). In other recorded passages, Christ showed a preferential option for children, setting them before his disciples as the ideal (Mark 9:36, Lk 9:47). Changing the definition of marriage to include homosexual relationships reduces marriage to simply an adult relationship without due consideration for what is in the best interest of the child. Children will be subject to the fancies and whims of adults. They will be treated like objects and prizes in the desperate search for “equality.” Their innocence may be violated by an overtly sexual environment. Christ would never endorse or condone such self-absorption in the name of marriage. Jesus was an advocate for little children, not an activist endorsing the endless selfishness of adults.
Senator Trenholm Counsell should check herself into the next available Sunday school before her next press interview.
