Marriage and the family

• Abstinence: choosing to restrain oneself from doing something, for example, having sex or eating food (also called fasting)
• Adultery: when a married person has a sexual relationship with someone other than their spouse
• Annulment: a declaration that a marriage is null and void; in effect, as if it had never happened, for reasons such as being under age or being forced to marry
• Atheist: someone who does not believe in the existence of God
• Christingle: a lighted candle symbolising Jesus as the light of the world, often carried by children in church celebrations around Christmas time
• Cohabitation: living together in a sexual relationship but without legalising the union through marriage
• Conception: the moment when a sperm fertilises an egg, creating an embryo that can develop into a baby
• Contraception: artificial and natural methods of preventing pregnancy; also known as birth control
• Divorce: the legal ending of a marriage
• Equality: treating people in the same way irrespective of differences such as sex, race, education, disability or sexuality
• Faithfulness: not having a sexual relationship with anyone other than a partner
• Gender discrimination: acting upon a prejudice about someone's gender; for example, not appointing a woman to a high-paid job on the assumption that she must be too fragile for the role
• Gender prejudice: making judgements about men or women on the basis of their gender;
• Heterosexuality: sexual attraction to members of the opposite sex
• Homosexuality: sexual attraction to members of the same sex
• Humanist: an atheist person who looks to reason and empathy to live a meaningful life, valuing and seeking to help human life
• Marriage: the legal union of a man and woman or a same-sex couple
• Ordination: the appointment of men and women to professional ministry in the Church
• Pride/Gay Pride: a social movement encouraging homosexual people to express their sexuality openly and with self-esteem
• Procreation: the act of having sex and producing children
• Promiscuity: engaging in sexual relations with multiple partners on a casual basis
• Rites of passage: events marking key stages in life
• Sanctity of marriage: the idea that marriage has a special significance as a holy gift from God
• Situation ethics: ethical decisions made according to the specific context; in any situation do the most loving action
• The Catholic View on marriage:

  • Marriage is a covenant made by the partners to God
  • Doesn't allow divorce but allows annulment in cases like being forced to marry, underage, or the marriage was never consummated
• Supporting Bible verse for the Catholic View: "A wife must not separate from her husband and a husband must not divorce his wife" - I Corinthians 7:10-11
• The Protestant View on divorce:

  • Divorce can be allowed in some circumstances
  • Relationships can break down, and mistakes can be forgiven by God
• Supporting Bible verse for the Protestant View: "Anyone who divorces his wife except for sexual immorality and marries another woman commits adultery" - Matthew 19:9
• Quotes suggesting equality of men and women in the family:

  • "So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them." (Genesis 1:27)
  • "There is neither Jew nor Gentile, neither slave nor free, nor is there male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus." (Galatians 3:26)
• Quotes suggesting men have more authority than women:

  • "I will make your pains in childbearing very severe; with painful labor you will give birth to your children. Your desire will be for your husband, and he will rule over you." (Genesis 3:16)
  • "Wives, submit yourself to your own husbands as you do to the Lord. For the husband is the head of the wife as Christ is the head of the church." (Ephesians 5:22)
• Marriage is a covenant between two people, which means that they are bound together by promises made to one another.
• Christians believe that marriage is a gift from God, given to us so we can love and care for one another.
• Mark 10:7 "A man will leave his father and mother and be united with his wife, and the two will become one flesh"
• Exodus 20:14 "You shall not commit adultery"
• 1 Thessolanians 4:3 "It is god's will that you should be sanctified: that you should avoid sexual immorality"
• Romans 1:26-27 "men also abandoned natural relations with women and were inflamed with lust for one another. Men committed indecent acts with other men, and received in themselves the due penalty for their perversion."
• Ephesians 6:1-4 " Children obey your parents... Father's do not exasperate your children; instead bring them up in the training and instruction of the lord"
• Matthew 19:14 "Let the little children come to me... for the kingdom of heaven belongs to such as these"
• British Humanist Foundation "if contraception results in every child being a wanted child then it must be a good thing"
• "The Catholic Church teaches that life begins at conception"