Livingstone ThompsonGuest Columnist
One of the things I would like to ask those hoping to succeed P. J. Patterson as Prime Minister, is their view on the registration of civil partnership, which is sure to become an issue between the next two general elections.
The civil partnership act came into force in Britain. The provision of this act is that any two individuals above the age of 18 years, regardless of gender, may register their partnership, providing, off course, that they are not married or in any other civil partnership and that both parties consent to the registration.
The very day the act came into force, several couples, including the well-known Sir Elton John and his partner, took advantage of the provisions and registered their homosexual relationship. For all intents and purposes they are 'married' because their rights and privileges are similar to those of traditionally-married couples.
A similar development has been taking place in the Republic of Ireland where the House of the Oireachtas, (pronounced E-rak-tas), the equivalent of the English parliament, began debating a civil partnership bill in 2005. The lawmakers are careful to point out that the tabling of the bill is not meant to tamper with the traditional notion of marriage.
Nevertheless, in its present form, the bill makes the rights and privileges to be granted to civil partners the same as those held by married couples.
The wish not to tamper with the traditional notion of marriage, as I will show below, amounts only to words because the net effect of the bill is to make marriage unnecessary.
AVOIDING DISCRIMINATION
Given the way in which developments of this nature tend to go in the international community, it will not be long before the Jamaican Parliament will be debating a civil partnership bill.
Indeed, with the current discussions on the Charter of Rights it would not be a surprising development.
The support group for homosexuals, J-Flag, was one of the bodies consulted in the preparation of the proposed constitutional changes.
The case for such a bill can be easily made, as there is already constitutional prohibition of discrimination on the basis of sex.
The need to avoid discrimination is probably the strongest argument used to justify this bill in the Irish case. In their view, such a move is, "not only in the interests of the individual but also in the interests of the public good".
The argument is persuasive because it claims to be founded upon ideals "of equity, fairness, justice and human decency."
With such a reasonable basis, and having the same tenor as a person's human rights, the only thing that may deter our lawmakers in Jamaica from moving with haste in this direction, are the strong cultural and religious attitudes against the legalisation of homosexuality, which is an unavoidable consequence of such a move.
Yet, the prospect of being denied aid for not allowing recognition of these civil partnerships may cause our lawmakers to disregard local cultural and religious attitudes.
It is not illogical to conclude that the effect of the civil partnership bill will be to make the traditional notion of marriage null and void. Indeed, one of the questions that the discussion in Ireland has thrown up is precisely whether marriage, understood as the solemnisation of a union between a man and woman of proper ages, is really necessary any longer.
Recognising civil partnership
The question is important because by its present provisions a man and a woman (or two persons of the same sex), being of proper ages, may also register their partner and not call it marriage.
This move towards recognising civil partnership for heterosexual couples is rather interesting because there is already a provision for civil marriage. The union between a man and woman can be legalised without the necessity of being solemnised, which is the aspect usually associated with the religious ceremony.
The big question then, is: why marriage? Why would a couple bother to marry, when they can register their civil partnership with the same consequences?
(Mind you, the converse is also important: Why would a heterosexual couple not just apply to be married instead of being in a civil partnership?)
The fact, then, that a heterosexual couple can come to be in a legal civil partnership with all the rights and privileges of marriage will mean that the traditional marriage, as described above, will no longer be necessary.
The view, then, that the bill does not in any way affect the concept of marriage is naïve.
The bill is in effect the thin edge of the wedge that will eventually lead to the eclipsing of the notion of marriage, which all religions treat in a sacramental way.
frontier for secularisation
My wonder is whether our potential PM's are mindful of how sinister these trends. The civil partnership bill illustrates the ever-increasing bias against traditional ideas of what is sacred.
It is the same thinking and attitude that informs the trading of children, the trading of pornographic material and the like.
We call the trend secularisation a bias against anything sacred because by regarding anything as sacred, one is upholding the authority of the church/religions/God. From the 16th century, the arena of the sacred has been on the retreat.
The trend towards secularisation began with the giant step of denying God any role in the creation of the world, which required only a baby walk from there to the denial of any role for God in the individual's life.
Today, the trend towards secularisation has arrived at the denial of the church/religions/God the final say in what is proper in human sexual relations.
Comparatively speaking, this might be a baby walk but it is an important development towards the full routing of the notion of sacred. The last frontier to become fully secularised is human life itself.
Happily until now, with the help of the church/religions, it is still regarded as sacred. But even as we speak, 'the Philistines are upon us'.
So what do the potential prime ministers have to say?
Dr. Livingstone Thompson is a Jamaican theologian lecturing in the Republic
of Ireland. He may be contacted at
email: lthompson@citc.ie.
