To be fully formed, children need to be free to generously receive from and express affection to parents of both genders. Genderless marriages deny this fullness.

Mainwaring reflected on the day-to-day routines of mothering and fathering, and came away with the conviction that children should not be denied the uniqueness of what mothers and fathers bring to their upbringing. As Mainwaring says:

Mr Cohen, a former Channel 4 News correspondent and founder and the online gay marriage campaign Out4Marriage, makes the comparison in one of Radio 4's "Lent talk" slots.

It is part of a series of talks in the run up to Easter dealing with the theme of "abandonment". Other speakers include the author Alexander McCall Smith, discussing the experience of ageing and Loretta Minghella, Director of Christian Aid, speaking about the self.

"Movies have been transfixed by violence from the beginning," writes Manohla Dargis in The New York Times. He reports that the inventor of films, Thomas A. Edison (of light bulb fame) made a film in 1895 about the spectacle of death in "The Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots."

"Far more disturbing is Edison's "Electrocuting an Elephant," (1903) in which Topsy, a real Coney Island elephant was killed on camera with 600 volts of electricity."

Real communication is happening in the digital world, on the Web, and on the smart phone in your pocket. Real information is being shared and globally disseminated, faster than ever before. Real conversations are taking place, through voice, words and images, connecting people and conversations all over the world.