Interesting article from a Christian magazine which reports the findings of a journalist who has done a bit of digging -
www.christiantoday.com/article/is.paedophilia.a.real.danger/136651.htm
From the article :
... document entitled the 'Feminist declaration on the occasion of the twenty-fifth anniversary of the Fourth World Conference on Women', a document drafted by the Women's Rights Caucus, a global coalition of over 200 organisations working to advance women's human rights internationally.
Whilst railing against the patriarchy, heteronormativity and advocating, amongst other things, an extremist abortion policy, recognition of 'sex work' and removing the 'discriminatory' link between this and trafficking, it makes two statements which are quite breathtaking.
Their aim is to:
"Eliminate all laws and policies that punish or criminalize same-sex intimacy, gender affirmation, abortion, HIV transmission non-disclosure and exposure, or that limit the exercise of bodily autonomy, including laws limiting legal capacity of adolescents, people with disabilities or other groups to provide consent to sex."
And to:
"End the criminalization and stigmatization of adolescents' sexuality, and ensure and promote a positive approach to young people's and adolescents' sexuality that enables, recognizes, and respects their agency to make informed and independent decisions on matters concerning their bodily autonomy, pleasure and fundamental freedoms."
The UN categorises adolescents as those between 10 and 18. If words have any meaning, and in this post-post-modern world it is questionable whether they do, then this is clearly calling for 'the right' of those aged 10 and above to consent to sex, which is regarded as a fundamental freedom.
So what does this have to do with the Scottish election? The document was produced and signed by amongst others International Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans and Intersex Association (the ILGA), and organisation that includes many groups like Mermaids, LGBT Labour, LGBT Humanists, National Union of Students LGBT Campaign, Stonewall Scotland, Stonewall Equality, Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement – LGCM and LGBT Youth Scotland.
Many of these groups are government-funded, and so the question has been raised: why is the government funding groups that have put their name to a document that advocates the removal of all laws limiting adolescents having sex?
A reasonable question, one would think, but it turns out that even to ask the question invites fury. Alba Women (the women's section of the new Scottish independence party), who first raised this at a large women's conference, have had their Twitter account suspended for reporting it.
Stonewall Scotland categorically denied campaigning for lowering the age of consent, but as yet have not dissociated themselves from the organisation which signed this on their behalf, nor demanded that it be retracted. Are they really saying that their slogan 'acceptance without exception' does after all have some exceptions? One would hope so!
Part of the fury is from those who consider that even raising such concerns is somehow equating homosexuality with paedophilia. Christians need to be very careful here not to do that, nor to hint at it. Many homosexuals are as horrified at this as the rest of us, and many heterosexuals are child abusers. It is absolutely wrong to lump together a whole group of people because of one ideology practised by some of them.
However, you don't avoid one evil by ignoring others and so we need to see that this is clearly the direction Queer theory leads in. Its aim is the absolute freedom to do as you please, with whoever you want, whenever you want. It is a philosophy (read Foucault and Butler) which believes absolutely in the individual's freedom to do whatever they want, free from the artificial restrictions of society. Speaking of Foucault, it is not without significance that accusations have recently come to light of him apparently raping boys as young as eight years old when he lived in Tunisia in the 1960s.
Closer to home, British gay campaigner Peter Tatchell wrote an infamous letter to The Guardian in 1997 where, after pointing out that several of his friends as children had sex with adults from the ages of nine to thirteen, he went on to say that whilst he condemned paedophilia, society should acknowledge "the truth that not all sex involving children is unwanted or harmful".
A couple of decades ago after a debate on same-sex adoption, some men who identified themselves as Tatchell supporters, told me that they did not believe in the age of consent, and that if they were babysitting my children (aged seven and eight) at the time, they would teach them to sexually explore, because it was "only natural". I was horrified – and to be fair, so was my debate opponent (himself gay), who stood with me to argue against such evil.
When I wrote to a national newspaper informing them of Tatchell's aim to reduce the age of consent to 14, I was told it would not be published as it was 'homophobic'. Then, as today, the cry of homophobe can be used to shut down any discussion.
At the end of the 1960s and during the early 1970s - the Jimmy Saville and Gary Glitter years - it actually looked as though paedophilia might become an accepted sexuality. The National Council for Civil Liberties, whose legal officer was Harriet Harman (future deputy Labour leader), even had the Paedophile Information Exchange as one of its members. But for some reason, in the mercy of God, by the end of the decade paedophilia had become the great sin – and has remained so.
But are things now changing? There are a number of straws in the wind, of which the 'Feminist Declaration' is just the latest.
Paedophilia is increasingly being recognised as a sexual orientation. For example in 2015 an academic conference at the University of Cambridge heard several speakers arguing in favour of paedophilia. In the same year, the American Psychological Association in an edition of its Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders called paedophilia a "sexual orientation". They later withdrew the designation.
Chillingly, there are more than 100,000 websites offering child pornography, some have argued that we are returning to a Greco/Roman/Pagan time where pederasty was considered a normal behaviour - and they think this is a good thing.