Should the Catholic Church abandon its faith to suit the Government?

Consider the following Old Testament sentence from Leviticus 18:22

"Thou shalt not lie with mankind, as with womankind: it is abomination."

This simple sentence is one which the Roman Catholic Church, from its very inception, has believed to mean that a man should not lie, as in perform sexual congress with, another man, for God has decreed this to be an abominable act.

Now the purpose of this post is not to endorse either the Roman Catholic Church view of sexual acceptability, or that of the British Government or for that matter that of homosexual couples.

It is however a question of how reasonable is it that religious organisations should be compelled to follow every judicial edict. In this case the British Government has ruled that Catholic Adoption Agencies do not have the right to refuse homosexual couples as potential adoptive parents. Frankly I think this decision is outrageous and is rightly being challenged by the head of the Catholic Church in England, the most Rev Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, Archbishop of Westminster.



Many members of the Government, civil rights groups and of course, gay organisations are screaming that the Archbishop's threat to close Catholic Adoption Agencies if they are forced to abide by this law as 'blackmail'.

I don't see it as anything of the sort. I see it as the Head of the Catholic Church passionately asserting the Church's beliefs and telling the UK government that if an agency under the auspices of the Church is forced to behave in a way contrary to the faith of that Church then what value is there in faith and belief?

I am not a Catholic. I am not even religious. I am NOT anti-gay. I in fact support the Acts of Parliament designed to give homosexuals equal civil rights under the law. I believe that any agency sponsored by the State or local authorities should fully conform to this - and that includes considering homosexuals as adoptive parents.

Where I disagree, and it's a classic example of the Government wanting to have its cake and eat it, is to allow the continuation of Catholic Adoption Societies, because their hard work, experience and undoubted commitment are valued - but to insist that they fly in the face of everything they believe, and have always preached, in the area of acceptable sexual conduct in the eyes of God, by inviting homosexuals to adopt children from their agency.

I believe the Government has two choices to make. It either makes an exception for Church based adoption societies in this area, or it legislates to ban faith based Adoption Agencies from continuing work and insists that all adoptions are through state based agencies. Either is a morally arguable case but the present stance of trying to force the Catholic Church into a position which is total anathema to them is simply unreasonable.