Weekly column from Spain: Children have no right to have sex

These were the literal statements made by the Minister of Equality, Irene Montero, before the Congress of Deputies on September 21, when the law on sexual rights was being debated. The legislation includes sex education for minors at school.

Montero's words have unleashed a real communicative storm in Spain. For, according to these same words, children can have sexual relations with whomever they want, including with adults, if they are consensual. Therefore, a member of the Government in the Congress of Deputies defends a form of pederasty: pederasty consented by children.

Jorge Ruiz (1969) was born in Barcelona, Spain. At the age of 19, he was converted to the Christian faith.

He graduated in Journalism at the University of Barcelona and received a PhD in Theology at the Faculté Libre de Théologie Réformée in Aix-en-Provence, France. He serves as a Protestant pastor in the Iglesia Reformada Continuada, in Rubí (Barcelona, Spain). He is assessor for the Trinitarian Bible Society for the Spanish and French projects. He is married and father of four.

Reactions have not been long in coming and the nationalist right-wing party, Vox, has denounced Minister Montero before the Supreme Court (a purely aesthetic action that will certainly not have any practical repercussions).

For their part, the so-called verification agencies of news on the web and left-wing politicians and newspapers have had to work overtime to defend Montero. And so, some say that those on the right have manipulated the minister's statements, because, they say, in the context she was talking about 16-year-olds (which is an absolutely nonsensical argument, since "niño", which was the word she used, in Spanish refers specifically to kids under 12 years of age). Others focus on the fact that the minister precisely said that adults cannot touch children's bodies. However, they forget, I would say on purpose, the clause “if they do not want to.” Others, finally, appeal for "interpretative charity" in the face of the minister's obviously unfortunate statements.

Apologise

As far as I am concerned, I am not against giving the minister's statements the benefit of doubt. It is, perfectly possible that she speaks and, for whatever reasons, does not know what she is saying. Or she simply makes a mess of her own words. That is, one could even admit that Montero did not intend to defend pederasty in the Congress of Deputies. Yet, that is what she did. So, if this was not her intention, it would not be out of place for the Minister to apologise publicly and sincerely for the meaning of her own words. Which so far, she has not done nor, no doubt, will do.

My willingness to give her the benefit of doubt, then, in the face of Montero's words is limited, because charity is not the same as naivety. But above all, the charitable interpretation of Montero's words is broken down with an unappealable fact. It is only a single word: the term "right". Indeed, if a member of the Government uses the word "right", we must bear in mind what this really means for it. Most of the time, it simply amounts to "more power to the State". For in the modern political conception of things, the State is the guarantor of all recognised rights, vis-à-vis society and individuals. In other words, it is the one who will guarantee that all rights are fulfilled in all circumstances, above all other considerations and before whomever. Therefore, the more rights are recognised, the more power the State will have.

Protection of the State

When our politicians affirm that, for example, as abortion is a so-called right, underage girls also have the right to have an abortion. In practice, they really mean that the State will guarantee that these girls can have an abortion, even against the will of their parents. Exactly the same applies to the so-called "sexual orientation" or sex reassignment of minors. All of these procedures will take place under the protection of the State and parents will not be able to do anything to prevent it.

So, what does it mean when Montero says that children "have the right" to have sex with anyone, including adults? Well, it means exactly the same thing. And is she aware of it? Of course, she is. Because what will be the inevitable consequence of introducing sex education in schools to kids between 4 and 6 years? Even if it is not the ultimate goal, is it not to awaken in kids a totally premature interest in sex, or, in other words, to pervert minors?

On the other hand, the capacity of Spanish parents to resist this new political interference in their lives is close to zero. For the simple reason that almost 60% of marriages in the country end in divorce and four out of ten children are born out of wedlock. In other words, the vast majority of children in Spain come from what used to be called "broken families". How can parents resist the political trends if they are lost in life themselves?

Password

All signs thus seem to indicate that some people think that it is the right time to introduce and normalise in society that what was considered the most overwhelmingly disgusting form of perversion until relatively recently.

And all this, then, due to a single word: "right". You don't have to be a nominalist to realize that this term is devoid of any meaning beyond the word itself. But it is also not very hard to see that the word is very useful indeed to function as a password, in order to open the door to all kinds of possibilities in society.

However, when I open the Bible, I do not find the word "right" anywhere. What I do find is God's moral law, the Ten Commandments, which bind all men equally.

The time has come for Christians to realise that this notion of "rights" is nothing more than a foreign invader within our Christian ethics. Starting from that point of view, Christian ethics can become a real alternative to the broken world in which we live.