Personal and Family Issues

• What are the purposes of sex?

  1. Unitive 2. Procreative
• Bible Quotes relevant to sexual relationships

  ·       Therefore a man leaves his father and his mother and cleaves to his wife, and they become one flesh.

  ·       Do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit

  ·       You shall not commit adultery.
• Church arguments against homosexuality

  • God made male and female according to the Book of Genesis to complete each other and to procreate.
  • The natural order represented in nature is for male and female
  • forbidden in the book of Leviticus, “If a man lies with a male as with a woman, both of them have committed an abomination; they shall surely be put to death.”
  • Saint Paul's letters-he condemns homosexuality as “unrighteous” and claims that men who practice homosexuality will not inherit the Kingdom of God.
• Church arguments for homosexuality

  • Simply because a sexual union cannot result in children, it is not right to forbid any action that is a physical expression of genuine love.
  • Homosexuals are simply following their natural instincts.
  • There is evidence of homosexual activity throughout the animal kingdom.
  • many laws in the Bible would not be accepted now because the nature of society has changed, eg capital punishment and slavery.
  • Some people believe that Saint Paul's comments were about male prostitutes, not homosexuality in general.
• What does the RCC believe regarding celibacy for priests

  enables them to give themselves to God alone with an undivided heart in a remarkable manner.
• Why is sbm becoming more common?

  ·        Fewer follow Christianity

  ·       Virginity is considered less important

  ·       Contraception education

  ·       Encouraged in media

  ·       Fewer Marriages

  ·       Easier to obtain abortions
• Purpose of marriage

  1. uniting two people together in a life-long bond
  2. providing a secure environment for the birth and upbringing of children
• Church of Ireland teaching on marriage

  One of the functions of marriage is to provide a stable family unit, within the wider community, in which children can be born and nurtured.
• RCC teaching on marriage 


  The intimate community of life and love which constitutes the married state has been established by the Creator and endowed by Him with its own proper laws ... God himself is the author of marriage.
• Bible quotes on divorce

  I tell you that anyone who divorces his wife, except for marital unfaithfulness, and marries another woman commits adultery.
• Reasons for divorce


  -infidelity -abuse -addiction
• Nuclear Family


  a family unit consisting of two adults and any number of children living together. The children might be biological, step or adopted.
• Extended family


  grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins, either all living nearby or within the same household. For example, if a married couple lives with either the husband or wife's parents the family changes from a nuclear to extended household.
• Reconstituted family 


  also known as a blended family or step family. A family where one or both adults have children from previous relationships living with them.
• Single parent family 


   consists of a parent not living with a partner, who has most of the day-to-day responsibilities for raising the children. The children will live with this single parent for the majority of the time, but they may still have contact with their other parent.
• Same-sex family


   since civil partnerships were legalised in 2005, the number of same sex families has been growing (same-sex marriage was legalised in 2014). Same-sex couples cannot conceive together, so their children may be adopted or be the biological children of one member of the couple. They may also be from a sperm donor or a surrogate birth mother.