Reactions from the Irish Presbyterian Church; Salvation Army stands firm on marriage; RC archbishops in Scotland and England; Quakers; Jews; MPs and other sources
Irish Presbyterian Church ‘No’ To Same-Sex Marriage
The Presbyterian Church has expressed to Prime Minister David Cameron its strong support for the retention of the present legal definition of marriage and its rejection of any introduction of same-sex marriages.
The views are stated in a letter to the Prime Minister from Clerk of the Presbyterian General Assembly Rev Donald Watts.
Dr Watts writes, “The General Board of the Presbyterian Church in Ireland has instructed me to write on behalf of the Church to express its strong support for the retention of the present legal definition of marriage as ‘the permanent and lifelong union of one man and one woman, to the exclusion of all others'”.
The General Board is the most representative body of the Church, which has the authority to speak for the Church when the 1200 strong General Assembly, which usually meets annually, is not in session.
The letter concludes by urging Mr Cameron not to consider any change in the present definition of marriage.
“In writing to you the General Board is repeating the accepted teaching of the Church, reflected in a report to the General Assembly of 1979. The Presbyterian Church in Ireland would urge you not to consider any change in the present definition of marriage.”
http://www.presbyterianireland.org/news/news2012/news0806.html
Salvation Army stands firm on marriage
John Matear, Commissioner for GB and Ireland writes: – Salvationists will be aware of the publicity surrounding the announcement of the Equal Civil Marriage Consultation from Government on 15th March 2012. The consultation sets out the government’s proposals to enable same-sex couples to have a civil marriage. Internal discussions are ongoing and we will be submitting The Salvation Army’s response before the deadline of June 14th 2012.
The Salvation Army is firmly convinced that the strengthening and encouragement of the institution of marriage is vitally important to the maintenance of secure family life, and that this, in turn, is crucial to stability in society as a whole.
The Salvation Army affirms the New Testament standard of marriage, that is, the voluntary and loving union for life of one man and one woman to the exclusion of all others, this union being established by an authorised ceremony.
We make our belief clear that marriage is a religious ceremony, a covenant between God and a wife and a husband, as well as a legally binding contract. For those who do not share these beliefs we acknowledge the provision of a legal civil ceremony.
As a Christian Church we are firmly against any change to the definition of marriage and believe that neither the State nor the Church has the right to redefine its meaning.
We believe that it is wrong to discriminate against anyone in the provision of social and pastoral care because of their presumed or
declared identity.
Gay ‘marriage’ push aims to ‘recreate society’ and marginalise Christianity: RC Archbishop of Glasgow
LifeSite News – Creating “gay marriage,” is an attempt to rewrite the natural law and “recreate society,” says Mario Conti, Archbishop of Glasgow.
The bishop’s strong comments as the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that there is no such thing as a “right” to “gay marriage” in the European Convention on Human Rights, a revelation that has yet to put a damper on the UK government’s enthusiasm for changing the legal definition of marriage.
“It is certainly not the role of law to recreate our society according to passing fashions and ideologies, nor to redefine nature whether in terms of persons and their rights or its natural institutions,” Archbishop Conti said in a homily at St. Mary’s Cathedral in Edinburgh this weekend.
The prelate said that current plans to alter the definition of marriage, promoted by the Conservative government of David Cameron as an effort to strengthen marriage, are in reality just the next step in the “marginalisation” of Christianity and any voice opposed to homosexual activity.
“Those voices are growing ever louder in our country,” Conti said, “that attempted marginalisation is becoming ever more acute and we are witnessing the transformation of tolerance into a kind of tyranny in which religious views are the only ones which seem unworthy of respect and acceptance.”
http://www.lifesitenews.com/news/gay-marriage-push-aims-to-recreate-society-and-marginalise-christianity-arc?utm_source=LifeSiteNews.com+Daily+Newsletter&utm_campaign=09f4681443-LifeSiteNews_com_Intl_Headlines_03_27_2012&utm_medium=email
Archbishop attacks attempts to ‘recreate nature’
Christian Today – In a strongly worded sermon to mark the seventh anniversary of Pope Benedict XVI’s election this morning, the Archbishop said that it is “not the role of law to recreate our society according to passing fashions or ideologies, nor to redefine nature whether in terms of persons and their rights or its natural institutions” The Archbishop hit out at attempts to redefine marriage “without any reference to children”, and to put the claim of equality and diversity “on a higher level than faith and reason”, “ultimately asserting the moral equivalence between marriage and same-sex unions, contrary to the virtue of chastity”.
http://www.christiantoday.com/article/archbishop.attacks.attempts.to.recreate.nature/29534.htm
Archbishop Vincent Nicholson on gay marriage
BBC News – Head of the Catholic Church in England and Wales, Vincent Nichols, has likened committed gay relationships to “friendship”.
Asked by Newsnight’s Jeremy Paxman what he would say to a gay couple who came to him seeking marriage, he said he would tell them that their relationship was the basis for a “profound friendship”, not marriage.
The government has launched a 12-week consultation on allowing gay couples in England and Wales to marry. Video here:
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17393969
Archbishop Nichols corrects the impression given on BBC about gay friendships
Protect the Pope – Archbishop Nichols has sought to correct the impression he gave on BBC Newsnight about gay friendships in an article in The Catholic Herald.
http://protectthepope.com/?p=4939
Quakers call for equal marriage in address to the Queen
Pink News – The Religious Society of Friends in Britain, generally known as the Quakers, have called on Her Majesty, Queen Elizabeth II, to support the inclusion of same-sex couples in the definition of marriage in their address to the monarch on the occasion of her Diamond Jubilee.
The Quakers were among the Privileged Bodies who were invited to address Her Majesty, and the ceremony took place at the Buckingham Palace earlier today. Twelve representatives from the community attended, and the text of the Loyal Address was read to the Queen by Joycelin Dawes, clerk and chair of trustees at Quaker Social Action and associate tutor at Woodbrooke Quaker Study Centre in Birmingham.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/03/27/quakers-call-for-equal-marriage-in-address-to-the-queen/
Chief Rabbi pushed to rule on same-sex marriage
Jewish Chronicle – Chief Rabbi Lord Sacks has been urged to take a stand against government plans to introduce marriage for same-sex couples.
Dayan Yisroel Lichtenstein, head of the Federation Beth Din, said: “It is his obligation as chief rabbi to speak out.”
While Catholic leaders have been at the forefront of opposition to the proposals, Lord Sacks’s office has stated on more than one occasion that he would not be commenting on the issue.
Dayan Lichtenstein said that in America – where a number of states including New York, have moved to introduce same-sex marriage – “it has become a major issue among the rabbinate. They believe it is their obligation as rabbis to do whatever they can to prevent this happening.”
http://www.thejc.com/news/uk-news/65474/chief-rabbi-pushed-rule-same-sex-marriage
Thanet MP Sir Roger Gale’s gay marriage views criticised
BBC News – A councillor has called a public meeting to discuss a Conservative MP’s comments about same-sex marriage.
In a letter to a newspaper, Sir Roger Gale, Conservative MP for Thanet, said he opposed the Coalition government’s plan to allow gay marriage.
Defending his remarks later, he said he believed marriage was unique to the union between a man and a woman.
Councillor Ian Driver said he had been contacted by “outraged” constituents who wanted to register their “disgust”.
In his letter to Thanet Extra, Sir Roger said he believed that marriage described the union, in church or out of it, of one man and one woman, and that removing husband and wife from official documents took “equality into a realm that is almost Stalinist in its political correctness”.
He asked: “Will Shakespeare, Milton and The Holy Bible be rewritten also?”
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-kent-17543643
MP rejects gay ‘marriage’
Kentish Gazette – Allowing gay couples to marry would undermine a “treasured institution”, says Canterbury and Whitstable MP Julian Brazier.
The married father-of-three was speaking as the government launched a 12-week consultation on whether to allow same sex marriage in England and Wales.
Mr Brazier, who is a practising Roman Catholic, says he is opposed to the concept and given the chance will vote against it in the House of Commons.
He said: “It seems to me this is a very radical measure which will undermine a treasured institution and could have unforeseen consequences.
“We shouldn’t allow an institution of this importance to be re-defined simply to meet a rights agenda.
“It’s always been defined in a practical way which is quite restrictive when you think about it – there’s got be one of each sex, you can’t be related, you can’t be married to somebody else.
http://paper.li/churchnewspaper?utm_source=subscription&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=paper_sub#!society
Section 29 of Equality Act 2007 will force Churches to conduct gay marriages –C of E Lawyers
Protect the Pope.com – Lawyers for the Church of England have advised bishops that section 29 of the Equality Act 2007 will force all Churches to conduct gay marriages if David Cameron’s plans to change UK marriage legislation succeed.
‘Equality laws introduced by Labour in 2007 have already disrupted 11 Roman Catholic adoption agencies,which have either stopped finding new homes for children or severed their links with the church because they are no longer allowed to decline to place children with gay couples.
The same laws,now enshrined in the 2010 Equality Act which was voted into law by the Coalition,will,CofE lawyers believe,make churches offer marriage to same-sex couples if they law permits them to marry.
The lawyers’ paper said:‘A key relevant section is section 29 of the Equality Act which makes it unlawful for a person concerned with the provision of a service to the public or a section of the public to discriminate on various grounds,including sexual orientation.’
Minister Lynn Featherstone’s assurances that legal changes to allow man-man,woman-woman ‘marriages’will only apply to civil weddings are misinformed at best,and intentionally misleading at worst.
Protect the Pope comment – The assurances from government ministers that homosexual marriages will not be allowed in religious premises are hollow if they are not backed up in future legislation with a section that states categorically that the Equality Act 2007,section 29,cannot apply to the provision of marriage on religious premises.
If this isn’t set out in black and white the gay lobby is going to line up Catholic homosexuals to demand a gay marriage from a Catholic parish somewhere in the UK as a test case. Every case brought under section 29 of the Equality Act 2007 has been lost by Christian defendants.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2113677/Church-forced-conduct-gay-weddings-say-lawyers-studying-Equality-Act-voted-Coalition.html
http://protectthepope.com/?p=4936
How the gay-marriage campaign has unleashed a bureaucratic assault on people’s identities
Telegraph Blogs – Brendan O’Neill – Anyone who thinks the introduction of gay marriage will give rise to a new era of liberty and choice should look at the Canadian experience. There, the passing of the 2005 Civil Marriage Act, which allows same-sex unions, unleashed a phenomenal amount of state meddling in families and relationships. Most notably, the state utterly overhauled the traditional language of the family, airbrushing from official documents terms such as “husband” and “wife” and even “mother” and “father”. The Orwellian obliteration of such longstanding identities, which mean a great deal to many people, demonstrates that modern politicians are more than happy to ride roughshod over the majority in their desperate pursuit of some PC political points.
The Lib-Con consultation on gay marriage has hinted that words such as “husband” and “wife” could soon become a thing of the past, to be replaced by the sterile and soulless “spouse”. In Canada, they’ve already done this.
Comment: Biased BBC skews the debate on LGBT issues
Pink News – An alternative view from Adrian Tippetts – The BBC’s reporting on marriage equality proposals is more proof the corporation does not take LGBT issues seriously. Stupid questions, a megaphone to fanatics, fawning deference to faith and giving no time to the voices from our communities: it’s time BBC stopped treating its LGBT licence payers with contempt. The debate over same-sex civil marriage has put LGBT rights in the spotlight as never before. But are gay people getting a fair hearing, especially on the BBC?
The very standards for measuring the Corporation’s supposed impartiality are explained in a ten-minute video presented by Evan Davies on its School of Journalism website.
Impartiality, after all, still requires judgments to be made on how to report the story, which facts to report, and whose opinions to include.
http://www.pinknews.co.uk/2012/03/27/comment-biased-bbc-skews-the-debate-on-lgbt-issues/