Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg has stated his opposition to David Cameron’s proposed tax breaks for married couples. He stated it was a bid by Prime Minister David Cameron  to turn back the clock to the 1950s’ “model of the suit-wearing, bread-winning  dad and aproned homemaking mother and try and preserve it in  aspic”.

Proponents of marriage are not harking back to an outdated model. They believe that marriage is best for children, and for society – and the evidence supports them in history and research. Of course it would never do for politicians to go back to the Bible and see that God set up the institution as He officiated at the very first wedding between Adam and Eve. That would be problematic as this marriage was between one man and one woman. Does Nick Clegg know that:-

• There is plenty of publicity  about research into the benefits of marriage. One in three unmarried couples separate before their child’s fifth birthday,  compared with one in 11 married couples.
• The British  tax system is one of the least family-friendly in the Western world. Other  countries are far more generous in using the tax system to support marriage and  the extra costs of bringing up children. Germany and France are far more generous and give less support to single parent mothers.
• According to David Cameron the UK is still a Christian country and wants it to get back to Christian morals. Nick Clegg is of course not only a Liberal politician but also an atheist. If our leaders are not supporting marriage then it should be no surprise then that Britain has more divorces, teenage pregnancies and single  mothers than any of our continental neighbours.

In truth, all our three major political parties are conservative or Christian in their views. Will David Cameron return the Conservative party to conservative roots – if it gains more popular votes? He himself is not a practising Christian but encourages us to do so. Maybe he could dismantle the many anti-Christian laws which have  attacked the faith and marriage over the past half-century – such as quickie divorces, mass giveaways of contraceptives to children,  the teaching of  promiscuity in schools and promoting same-sex relationships as marriage. For years there has been the replacement of Biblical moral codes of behaviour by moral neutrality or rampant immorality.

David Cameron was right to say that this mentality helped  cause some of the social problems that lay at the heart of the anarchic  lawlessness in this summer’s riots, and also that the absence of moral codes had  allowed some bankers and politicians to behave with scant regard for the rest of  society. If only we paid more attention to marriage, Christian beliefs and Church then perhaps we wouldn’t be in such a mess in 2011 going into 2012. At least in the 1950’s marriage was seen as important. Marriage is in found in practically every society. It’s hard to disagree with a mere £150 tax break that looks set to save money in the long run and set the right tone to a fragmented UK society.

Categories: Apologetics