Putting the cart before the horse!

One of yesterday's news items concerned the case of Emma Hickman and her legal battle with the Ministry of Defence - a battle which she has finally won.  The background was that her fiancé, who was a serving soldier in the 3rd Battalion, The Yorkshire Regiment, died in a Taliban bomb attack, in March of this year.  A tragic incident - exacerbated, three months later, by the birth of a daughter to Ms Hickman.

She claimed, not unsurprisingly, that her fiancé was the father of her child, but the MoD refused to release a sample of Private Wade's DNA to allow his paternity to be beyond doubt, and to enable him to be named on the baby's Birth Certificate.  At last, officials have released a sample, and Private Wade's paternity has been confirmed.  This does have the added benefit of making the child (at least) eligible for compensation - although the young mother has vehemently denied that her case had anything to do with money and, oddly enough, I am inclined to believe her!

However, it does raise the whole issue of the falling moral standards that are so prevalent in our contemporary society.  If this couple had not "put the cart before the horse", and had been married to one another before bedding each other, the situation would not have arisen!  

Many of us, in Scotland and the UK, are deeply concerned about the current attempts by some politicians in both Holyrood and Westminster to redefine marriage.  However, could it be that the concept has already been so devalued that such a move is almost a "natural" progression?

What we need is a return to the "old-fashioned" values of chastity before marriage, and fidelity within it; of children being reared by a father and a mother (except, of course, in such tragic situations as that of Private Wade and Ms Hickman); of proper, and appropriate, discipline being exercised in the home.

Such "reactionary" ideas may not gain much support from the general population, but they could go a long way towards healing a society that is not so much fractured, as broken into little pieces!  This is where the true Church of God, the Body of Christ, has an important part to play.  "... if My people who are called by My Name humble themselves, and pray and seek My face, and turn from their wicked ways, then I will hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin and heal their land." (II Chron.7:14), is a word from Almighty God that has not been revoked.  However, it is "His people" who are to be involved.  Let those of us who claim to be among that number take His word seriously, and call upon His name.