PrintIn an interview many years ago now, Billy Graham was asked about his understanding of human nature. His response was simple but not simplistic. "The way I see it from the Bible is that the good in human nature is getting better and the bad is getting worse".
I find it amazing that we humans are capable of such incredible, sacrificial love and goodness on the one hand and yet, on the other hand, we are capable of the most horrific, destructive action towards others. Given time and the erosion of traditional values, it is possible to abandon those values and embrace convictions that are so different to those we once defended with passion.
For example, there was a time when the idea of two males being married to each other was enough to evoke a response of strong opposition on the basis that such a relationship was a threat against a wholesome well-balanced society.
Guess what? The New Zealand Government has voted to make marriage between two men or two women legal. Of course, this move was entirely predictable. The removal of one value leads to the vacuum principle which demands an alternate value take its place and the removal of another........and so the process continues.
Where and when will it finish? The reality is that it won't finish - not in this life, anyway. This eroding process will be with us forever. What was it that Billy Graham said, "the good in human nature is getting better and the bad is getting worse".
At the risk of setting myself up for some counter attack, I want to register my opposition to pursuing this social agenda of radical change when it involves undermining those values that have and continue to have a stabilising influence without resisting the right kind of progress as we move into the future.
There's a question that presses in on us as we look back on our record of what we have done in the past and what we are learning from the consequences of those decisions?
Abortion: It will only ever be permitted in the case where the mother's life is in danger, where the pregnancy is the result of rape and we are never to be afraid that it will be generally available to the public .
Judge for yourself.
Euthanasia. There is no way we will ever consider this "abortion at the other end of life" to be a viable option to allowing death by natural causes.
Judge for yourself.
Traditional Marriage. Of course this is the union of a man and a woman and the day will never come when a 'marriage' between two people of the same sex will ever be permitted by the ruling authorities
Judge for yourself.
Future Marriage. The day will never come when Governments allow, legalise or encourage marriage between two male consenting adults or two female consenting adults. Nor will adults ever be permitted to marry children. Nor will marriage to multiple partners at the one time ever be Government endorsed
We will see - you judge for yourself.
In "The Australian" newspaper on April 25th last (page 11) there appears just a small note that has the potential to become front page headlines. Here is what it says:
"It had to happen. Just a week after the Kiwi parliament passed marriage equality laws, a group calling for multi-partner marriages has appeared on Facebook. It insists that all committed loving relationships between adults, regardless of number, should be respected and given legal acknowledgement. This will be a long term project but with the rest of the world getting on the bandwagon, legal, multiple partner marriages/unions may one day be accepted," the group insists. Some Australian Greens have now got a lobby going. There are several MPs around the world coming out as poly and poly friendly". The search for the consequences is taking front and centre place in medicine".
We will see - and you judge for yourself
