Homosexual "marriage" in the UK - latest news

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Somerset

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The Conservative party has now announced that in the forthcoming vote on this issue, conservative MPs will have a free vote. There was some discussion about this issue on the PB some weeks ago - I think many of us struggled to accept that the party would whip on such an issue. The liberal party are treating the issue as an "equality" issue, thus will be whipping their MPs. Traditionally MPs have a free vote on issues of this nature.

The government have set up a public consultation exercise on the issue of homosexual "marriage" - asking for comments on a range of specific questions. Today the Church of England made public it's response. It is a very powerful attack on both the idea of such unions and on the consultation process itself. The Church argues that marriage must be between one man and one woman, and that this was instituted by God before the Church of England was in existence.

The Church is also very critical of the consultation process, particularly as the preamble to the consultation says that the government is committed to overturning the ban on such unions - thus prejudging the whole exercise. The Church also publicly attacks the "equalities" minister by name.

The whole CofE document reads in quite an academic way - but for the Church it is very, very strong.

The final issue the CofE address is the area of whether ministers will be forced to conduct homosexual "marriages". The government, and those campaigning for changes to the law, have argued that ministers will be allowed in law to not conduct such unions if that is their will. The Church argues that such an exception would probably not be allowed under articles 12 and 14 of the European Human Rights Act, taken together. No mention is made as to the source of this advice - but I cannot imagine it would be anyone under the rank of a High Court judge. I think the proponents of change hoped to convince people that ministers would have freedom of choice - till the law was passed and it would be too late to do anything about it. The most likely scenario is that ministers would either have to conduct all marriages - or none.

In theory, this issue affects all religious groups. But non CofE denominations can currently decide whether to marry people or not. This would change under the proposed legislation - but many denominations would not permit an active homosexual to become a member and non members would still to have right to demand a church marriage. There might be some problems with "closet" homosexuals or people going to the lengths of being untruthful about their sexuality to become church members. The second of these ideas seems very far fetched - but the RCs may be in for a shock when they discover how many active homosexuals quietly attend mass.

The real problem is for the CofE as everyone in England and Wales lives in a parish of the CofE and, thus, has a right to be married by the CofE provided they fulfill requirements relating to age, present marital status etc - being a non Christian is no bar to a CofE marriage - part of the deal that makes the CofE established.

Today, spokesmen for Stonewall (homosexual lobby group) have been arguing on the media that a minister's freedom will not be at risk, quoting the fact that CofE ministers have the right to decide whether to remarry those who are divorced. However, this is a false analogy. To begin a case under equal opportunity legislation, one has to be a member of a minority deemed able to take such a case. So one can only start a case on grounds of case, gender, disability etc - there is no such group in equalities law as "those who have already been married". The fact the homosexual lobby is using such spurious arguments, strongly suggests to me that they know full well what the European Court will say.

Brothers and sisters please pray for the land of Wycliffe, Cranmer, Ryle and Spurgeon. Please also pray that Godly men in the CofE will not bend the knee to evil and that all Christians in the UK supports them - as they will feel the full virulance of militant homosexuality.
 
Brothers and sisters please pray for the land of Wycliffe, Cranmer, Ryle and Spurgeon. Please also pray that Godly men in the CofE will not bend the knee to evil and that all Christians in the UK supports them - as they will feel the full virulance of militant homosexuality.

yes, indeed. We are praying
 
The whole CofE document reads in quite an academic way - but for the Church it is very, very strong.

About time the C of E stuck to biblical principles against the culture and did so publicly. I'm glad to see they are opposing though.


The Church argues that such an exception would probably not be allowed under articles 12 and 14 of the European Human Rights Act, taken together.

They know that. We all know where this is going to end, people just want to conceal it before it's too late. It's just saddening quite frankly...


But non CofE denominations can currently decide whether to marry people or not.

No doubt they're simply the next in the firing line when more legislation is passed along the lines of "anti-discriminatory laws"... Our church showed a video the other week, which urged people to sign an online petition for the saving of the biblical principles of marriage, as in, between one man and one woman. Hopefully this legislation wont be passed, though my hopes aren't high. I hope that the church will stand unified on this issue.

Brothers and sisters please pray for the land of Wycliffe, Cranmer, Ryle and Spurgeon. Please also pray that Godly men in the CofE will not bend the knee to evil and that all Christians in the UK supports them - as they will feel the full virulance of militant homosexuality.

Amen.
 
Jenny - am I right in thinking that Scotland, and presumably NI, will not be covered by this specific piece of legislation?
 
Jenny - am I right in thinking that Scotland, and presumably NI, will not be covered by this specific piece of legislation?

I think you are right, but it's only a technical point really. Where the land of Cranmer and Spurgeon goes, the land of Rutherford and Knox is unfortunately certain to follow. Alex Salmond and the Scot Nats are equally bent on it.
Hopefully NI may hold out longer - they have far more real believers to the acre there :)
 
I've just checked - the current consultation only applies to England and Wales. I agree that Scotland would probably follow suit. But I can't see it being passed in NI, the DUP are rock solid on this sort of issue and turn out to show their feelings. I don't think SF or the SDLP would dare go against the RC view on this issue.
 
I can't see it being passed in NI, the DUP are rock solid on this sort of issue and turn out to show their feelings.

I'm sure you're right there, and thank God at least for Ulstermen even if all the rest of the UK is falling over itself to embrace perdition
 
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