From: Ouko joachim omolo
The News Dispatch with Omolo Beste in images
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 29, 2012
Tomorrow is Sunday December 30, 2012, the feast of Holy Family. Even though one of the primary functions of the family is to produce and reproduce persons biologically, today the church faces challenges on gay families-click here to see The 10 Most Famous Gay Parents And Their Families.
Today the question is not whether homosexuals should adopt children or not, but rather on whether people involved in homosexual or lesbian relationships be allowed to adopt children, or whether children who grow up in single-sex parented homes advantaged or disadvantaged.
These statistics show the tragic consequences of fatherless and single parent homes in the United States: 63% of youth suicides are from fatherless homes, 85% of all children that exhibit behavioural disorders come from fatherless homes, 80% of rapists motivated with displaced anger come from fatherless homes, 71% of all high school dropouts come from fatherless homes, 75% of all adolescent patients in drug abuse centres come from fatherless homes, 85% of all youths sitting in prisons grew up in a fatherless home.
While this applies to children who grow up in fatherless homes, mothers are equally important in the lives of children and the results of ‘motherless’ homes are equally tragic. Children, who grow up with two mothers and no father, and those who grow up with two fathers and no mother, will be horribly handicapped in life.
According to Dr Sotirios Sarantakos from Charles Stuart University, Australia, children in normal marriages faired the best, and children in homosexual homes the worst. Children of homosexual couples scored the lowest in language ability, mathematics and sport.
They were more timid, reserved, unwilling to work in a team or talk about home lives and holidays. They felt “uncomfortable when having to work with students of a sex different from the parent they lived with” and were the least sociable.
A study in Family Planning Perspective showed that male homosexuals were at greatly increased risk for alcoholism: “Among men, by far the most important risk group consisted of homosexual and bisexual men, who were more than nine times as likely as heterosexual men to have a history of problem drinking.
The church is opposed to same sex marriages because God’s Word is clear that only a man and a woman can enter into marriage, and this is the foundation for the family. Genesis 2:24 reads, “Therefore a man shall leave his father and mother and be joined to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.”
Malachi 2:15 says that God made a man and his wife one because “He seeks godly offspring.” For those who stray from the wisdom of God, the results are tragic. These statistics show that homosexual homes are less stable, more unfaithful and relationships are shorter, and there is more drug and alcohol abuse and domestic violence.
As Reuters report, children growing up in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender families are more likely to live in poverty and may be denied legal ties to one of their parents according to report released on Tuesday.
Yet still, the gay issue in the world has become acute. In France, mass demonstrations were held against the government’s intention to legalize gay marriage. In Great Britain, the spiritual head of the Anglican Church, Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has resigned. According to local media he left his post because of his inability to cope with homosexuality among the clergy.
In Russia, the Moscow Regional Duma refused to include in the agenda the bill similar to the one recently adopted in St. Petersburg about prohibition of homosexual propaganda to children and adolescents. Allegedly, the document “does not agree” with the federal law.
The primary purpose of the Church in instituting and promoting this feast is to present the Holy Family as the model and exemplar of all Christian families. That is why the Feast of the Holy Family is not just about the Holy Family, but about our own families too. The main purpose of the Feast is to present the Holy Family as the model for all Christian families, and for domestic life in general.
Above all, our family life becomes sanctified when we live the life of the Church within our homes. This is called the “domestic church” or the “church in miniature.” St. John Chrysostom urged all Christians to make each home a “family church,” and in doing so, we sanctify the family unit.
This is because marriage is too often conceived as the sacrament which unites a man and a woman to form a couple. In reality, marriage establishes a family, and its purpose is to increase the number of the elect, through the bodily and spiritual fecundity of the Christian spouses.
While every marriage intends children, the purpose of every marriage is to establish a Christian family. Yet every Christian family must live in harmony and in prayer, which are the pledges of joy and union.
Fr Joachim Omolo Ouko, AJ
Tel +254 7350 14559/+254 722 623 578
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Real change must come from ordinary people who refuse to be taken hostage by the weapons of politicians in the face of inequality, racism and oppression, but march together towards a clear and unambiguous goal.
-Anne Montgomery, RSCJ UN Disarmament Conference, 2002