{"id":5566,"date":"2013-04-13T12:00:32","date_gmt":"2013-04-13T11:00:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/?p=5566"},"modified":"2014-01-14T06:42:05","modified_gmt":"2014-01-14T06:42:05","slug":"gender-matters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/gender-matters\/","title":{"rendered":"Gender Matters"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>By <a href=\" https:\/\/plus.google.com\/103911280480982124182?rel=author\">Robin Phillips<\/a><\/p>\n<div id=\"fb-root\"><\/div>\n<p><script type=\"text\/javascript\">\/\/ <![CDATA[\n(function(d, s, id) {\n  var js, fjs = d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];\n  if (d.getElementById(id)) return;\n  js = d.createElement(s); js.id = id;\n  js.src = \"\/\/connect.facebook.net\/en_US\/all.js#xfbml=1\";\n  fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js, fjs);\n}(document, 'script', 'facebook-jssdk'));\n\/\/ ]]><\/script><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_5568\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-5568\" style=\"width: 298px\" class=\"wp-caption alignleft\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/family.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-5568 \" alt=\"The gender of parents actually makes a difference\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/family.jpg\" width=\"298\" height=\"240\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/family.jpg 620w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/family-600x484.jpg 600w, https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/03\/family-300x241.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 298px) 100vw, 298px\" \/><\/a><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-5568\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">The gender of parents actually makes a difference<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Doug Mainwaring, a homosexual, published <strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepublicdiscourse.com\/2013\/03\/9432\/\" target=\"_blank\">a fascinating article<\/a><\/strong> at The Witherspoon Institute earlier this month.<\/p>\n<p>Titled \u2018I&#8217;m Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage\u2019, the article gives an inside look into the problems that arise when two homosexuals try to create a \u201cfamily\u201d for their children. After sharing his journey, Mainwaring states the conclusion he reached: \u201cOver several years, intellectual honesty led me to some unexpected conclusions: (1) Creating a family with another man is not completely equal to creating a family with a woman, and (2) denying children parents of both genders at home is an objective evil. Kids need and yearn for both.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Though Mainwaring is not a Christian and identifies\u00a0 himself as gay, he intentionally got back together with his x-wife for the sake of the children.<\/p>\n<p>Mainwaring gave an antidote which shows, from the inside of family life, why gender matters:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>&#8220;Over the last couple of years, I\u2019ve found our decision to rebuild our family ratified time after time. One day as I turned to climb the stairs I saw my sixteen-year-old son walk past his mom as she sat reading in the living room. As he did, he paused and stooped down to kiss her and give her a hug, and then continued on. With two dads in the house, this little moment of warmth and tenderness would never have occurred. My varsity-track-and-football-playing son and I can give each other a bear hug or a pat on the back, but the kiss thing is never going to happen. To be fully formed, children need to be free to generously receive from and express affection to parents of both genders. Genderless marriages deny this fullness.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There are perhaps a hundred different things, small and large, that are negotiated between parents and kids every week. Moms and dads interact differently with their children. To give kids two moms or two dads is to withhold from them someone whom they desperately need and deserve in order to be whole and happy. It is to permanently etch &#8216;deprivation&#8217; on their hearts.&#8221;<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Mainwaring&#8217;s article is not written from a Christian perspective, and thus he writes that \u201cSame-sex relationships are certainly very legitimate, rewarding pursuits, leading to happiness for many\u2026\u201d At the same time, he has to acknowledge from his own experience that \u201cTwo men or two women together is, in truth, nothing like a man and a woman creating a life and a family together\u2026 they are wholly different in experience and nature.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>This goes against the pervasive idea amongst the homosexual community that gender is irrelevant to family life.\u00a0 Listen to what Dr. Jennifer Roback Morse said in <a href=\"http:\/\/www.colsoncenter.org\/the-center\/columns\/call-response\/14934-the-only-good-man-is-a-gay-man\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>an article<\/strong><\/a> reflecting on her debate with Judith Stacey:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>I crossed swords with Judith Stacey\u2026at a debate at Bowling Green State a few years ago. I asked her point blank if she believed men and women were completely interchangeable as parents. In front of that very friendly audience, she said absolutely: the gender of parents doesn\u2019t matter\u2026.<\/p>\n<p>Treating same sex unions like marriage amounts to saying that mothers and fathers are interchangeable. It is a cointoss from a child\u2019s point of view, whether they have two moms, two dads, or one of each.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>This idea that gender can be expunged from family without making any material difference may sound good in theory, but in the actual practice of family life, it is nonsense at best, and abusive to children at worse. This is something that Mainwaring has realized with startling clarity. Thus, his article concludes:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Gay and lesbian activists, and more importantly, the progressives urging them on, seek to redefine marriage in order to achieve an ideological agenda that ultimately seeks to undefine families as nothing more than one of an array of equally desirable \u201csocial units,\u201d and thus open the door to the increase of government\u2019s role in our lives\u2026. Marriage is not an elastic term. It is immutable. It offers the very best for children and society. We should not adulterate nor mutilate its definition, thereby denying its riches to current and future generations.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<div class=\"fb-comments\" data-href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/gender-matters\/\" data-width=\"470\" data-num-posts=\"200\"><\/div>\n<h3><strong>Further Reading<\/strong><\/h3>\n<ul>\n<li><strong><a href=\"http:\/\/www.thepublicdiscourse.com\/2012\/08\/6065\/\" target=\"_blank\">Growing Up With Two Moms: The Untold Children\u2019s View<\/a><\/strong><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/needs-of-children-irrelevant-to-gay-marriage-issue-guardian-writer-claims\/\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>Needs of children irrelevant to gay \u2018marriage\u2019 issue, Guardian writer claims<\/strong> <\/a><\/li>\n<li><a href=\"http:\/\/www.colsoncenter.org\/the-center\/columns\/changepoint\/17590-how-gay-marriage-became-plausible\" target=\"_blank\"><strong>How Gay &#8216;Marriage&#8217; Became Plausible <\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: left;\"><strong>Find out how to join Christian Voice and stand up for the King of kings (clicking on the link below does not commit you to join)<\/strong><\/p>\n<p style=\"text-align: center;\"><a href=\"http:\/\/wp.me\/P1OVTZ-gb\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3940\" style=\"border: 0px;\" title=\"Join Today!\" alt=\"\" src=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/08\/Join_donate_Logo2.jpg\" width=\"185\" height=\"180\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p><em>Please note that persons wishing to comment on this story must enter a valid email address. Comments from persons leaving fictitious email addresses will be trashed.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>By Robin Phillips Doug Mainwaring, a homosexual, published a fascinating article at The Witherspoon Institute earlier this month. Titled \u2018I&#8217;m Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage\u2019, the article gives an inside look into the problems that arise when two homosexuals try to create a \u201cfamily\u201d for their children. After sharing his journey, Mainwaring states the [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5566","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-homosexuality-trans"],"aioseo_notices":[],"rttpg_featured_image_url":null,"rttpg_author":{"display_name":"Robin","author_link":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/author\/robin\/"},"rttpg_comment":3,"rttpg_category":"<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/category\/homosexuality-trans\/\" rel=\"category tag\">Homosexuality &amp; Trans<\/a>","rttpg_excerpt":"By Robin Phillips Doug Mainwaring, a homosexual, published a fascinating article at The Witherspoon Institute earlier this month. Titled \u2018I&#8217;m Gay and I Oppose Same-Sex Marriage\u2019, the article gives an inside look into the problems that arise when two homosexuals try to create a \u201cfamily\u201d for their children. After sharing his journey, Mainwaring states the&hellip;","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5566","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5566"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5566\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5566"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5566"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.christianvoice.org.uk\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5566"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}