Woke this morning feeling rather glum and restless, had an early morning glance at the independent online and found the following article;
My first thought was incredulity, how in this day and age there are ministers with this dusty archaic viewpoint is beyond me. Clearly the cabinet needs new faces who do not live in the world of gramophones and mothballs.
The opposition to this smacks of homophobia, and demonstrates an inability on their part to allow gay couples the very same rights that heterosexuals take for granted.
So what exactly is the problem? As usual you do not have to look too far into this subject before finding the religious hissy fits. The words 'redefinition of marriage' seem popular, as according to the Catholic Bishop of Arundel and Brighton the Rt Rev Kieran Conry, it would be unacceptable to change what the church sees as a sanctified marriage.
“It is the question of protecting the particular, specific institution of marriage and its specific character as the permanent union of a man and a woman who would then bring up their own children.”
Mr Conry stresses that he supports civil partnerships, not least because it provides security financially in terms of inheritance and so forth. Right, so what he's saying is he can support homosexual relationships (that the bible purportedly forbids) but only to an extent. Isn't that just typical?
Similar reaction was heard from Andrea Williams the director of Christian concern, who seems to feel that the world or at least the religious world will somehow fall apart should gay marriage be legalised. She stated that the change would have "catastrophic consequences" for our society because;
“The complementary union of a man and a woman in marriage is where love, life, stability and the full flourishing of society begins."
The complementary union of people in general is what we are after, in a world where there is so much misery should we really be telling people of any gender that their relationship is somehow reduced in the eyes of a God that they wholeheartedly believe in? What message does this send?
If Andrea Williams wants to see flourishing, she need only look at the ONS figures on civil partnership to see how quickly they have risen since being legalised in the UK in 2005, while heterosexual marriage continues to decline. The times they are a'changing indeed.
Churches and governments in Europe have been getting on board with same sex marriage for a while:
Netherlands, legalised in 2000
Belgium, 2003
Spain, 2005
Norway, 2008
In 2009 The Lutheran church of Sweden had 70% of its synod support the move for same sex marriage, and if a priest refused to carry out the ceremony a replacement would be found.
At the time Sweden's biggest gay rights group, the Swedish Federation for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender Rights (RFSL), were more than thrilled.
"[We] congratulate the Church of Sweden for its decision. [The church's] homosexual and bisexual members will finally be able to feel a little more welcome within society,"
It is hard to believe that allowing those in love to marry within a framework of their choosing whether church based or not could cause anything like the catastrophic disaster suggested by some religious bigots. Don't we all have much bigger fish to fry at present?
Let us all hope that the Tory reptiles will shuffle back to the dusty confines of the 1950's and lament the loss of the 'institution' of marriage amongst themselves, as it seems their views are far past the sell by date and have little to bring to the table.
Get down that aisle guys...and stuff anyone that tells you that a loving God would think anything of it other than "Amen!"
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