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...FOR A HEALTHY FUTURE (click for audio)

It has recently been pointed out that the institution of marriage has, over recent centuries, lost some of its power as a bastion of society. Such changes as the legal possibility of marital rape, and the confidentiality of divorce proceedings have been cited as precursors of the recent acceptance in some western jurisdictions of such conditions as civil partnerships and marriages of persons of the same sex. It was also suggested that it is no longer even rational to consider that male and female were "made" for one another and similarly so for the sexual organs of a man and a woman. Perhaps the person who is reported to have married a bridge in the south of France several years ago because she loved it was displaying this trend, and those cited as "trans-ability" persons, having rendered themselves disabled or "differently abled", may belong to the same or a closely related trend.

The initial stages of a societal trend may be seen to be connected with the manifestation of its later stages, but cannot be taken as a justification for it. The rejection, for instance, of the unassailable rights of an aristocracy over a lower class of persons cannot be taken to be justification for anarchy or a wild and careless guillotine. The changes in the institution of marriage that were made through most of the second millennium lifted the status of women in general and indeed the status of the practice of sexual intercourse as well, but such changes cannot then be taken to justify all changes that might conceivably be seen to be part of the same trend. Trends that may have begun by contributing to societal good may indeed deteriorate in their later stages to cause profound damage.

So as to whether a societal practice or change within an institution is good or not, to cite it as part of a long trend is not enough. There needs to be a reliable and sufficiently agreed measuring stick to indicate whether the trend is or remains good, or whether it is or has become corrupted and damaging.

Some may appeal to the current provisions of law to provide such a measuring stick. However, we have already noted, and it is easy to see, that the provisions of law are often adjusted in order to accommodate the very trends we seek to analyse, whether those trends may be or may remain good, or whether they have begun to damage or destroy.

The current Constitution of the Cayman Islands cites their "distinct history, culture and Christian heritage and its enduring influence and contribution in shaping the spiritual moral and social values that have guided their development ..." The wording of the Constitution was argued over for many months, negotiated and then approved by referendum. These words, therefore, may with some reliability reveal the measuring stick that we need.