Bishop: if same-sex marriage is legalized, why not bigamy, incest?

August 06, 2012

As Scotland’s government takes steps towards the legalization of same-sex marriage, Bishop Hugh Gilbert of Aberdeen asked why bigamy and incest should not be legalized as well.

“You can’t have a meal without food, and you don’t have marriage without a man and a woman,” said Bishop Gilbert. “This isn’t just social convention. It’s not something any government can change. It’s a fact of life.”

“The truth is that a government can pass any legislation it likes, it can legislate to say that everything with four legs is a table, even when it’s a dog and not a horse, but that won’t make it so,” he continued, adding:

Why is it all right for a man to marry another man, but not all right for him to marry two women? If we really want equality, why does that equality not extend to nieces who genuinely, truly love their uncles? And, if you say that such things don’t happen, that they are mere freaks of nature, extreme examples dreamed up for the sake of argument, I say you need to spend more time in the parish.

As bishop of Aberdeen, I know there are gay people amongst the community of the Church. I promise I will always respect and love them and uphold them in their relationship with the God who loves them. But I won’t marry them. It just can’t be done.

 

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Further information:

• Bishops hit ‘wall’ on marriage (Scottish Catholic Observer)
• Same-sex marriage: Anger over bishop’s bigamy and incest jibe (The Scotsman)