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| Britain |
| Catholic leader Cardinal Keith O'Brien clashes with David Cameron on same-sex marriage plans |
| 2012-03-04 |
| The Catholic Church is on a collision course with David Cameron as one of its most senior figures issues an outspoken attack on the Government over its plans to legalise gay marriage. Cardinal Keith O'Brien, the leader of the Catholic Church in Scotland, says the proposals to allow same-sex unions are "madness" and a "grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right". The cardinal's intervention, in an article for The Sunday Telegraph, is the strongest criticism yet from any church figure of the plans, which are due to be unveiled this month by Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister. He accuses ministers of trying to "redefine reality" and change long-standing laws and traditions "at the behest of a small minority of activists". The cardinal has added his voice to those of leading figures in the Coalition for Marriage, a group of bishops, politicians and lawyers opposed to the changes. The group's supporters include Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury. The group is in outright opposition to Mr Cameron, who hopes to make legislation changing the legal definition of marriage to include same-sex couples, expected by 2015, one of the central achievements of his time in office. |
| Posted by:tipper |
| #5 'Moose, IIRC there are some European countries where you have to have to have both a civil and religious marriage, if you want a religious marriage. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2012-03-04 21:25 |
| #4 'Moose, IIRC there are some European countries where you have to have to have both a civil and religious marriage, if you want a religious marriage. |
| Posted by: Rambler in Virginia 2012-03-04 21:25 |
| #3 Religions have been missing a bet, here. The recognition of civil marriage *had* the purpose of bestowing public support to couples who intended to reproduce and raise children. However, like anything else it touches, government is now trying to subvert marriage to perverse ends. So the way religions can get around this is to recreate marriage as a wholly religious thing, as well as to persuade their congregants to shun government marriage. Since governments already expanded privileges of marriage to couples living together, this should be possible. The next step is made possible by modern technology. It is to make a "Catholic registry of marriage", in which all Catholic marriages are recorded. And since Catholicism does not recognize divorce, only annulment, this acts to enforce Catholic marriage. Eventually while the church has "grandfathered" existing marriages, when they die out, it will not recognize civil marriage among Catholics, only church marriage. Civil marriage will be the same as living in sin. Acceptable only among non-Catholics. Doing this will terribly frustrate government efforts to subvert Catholicism, and they will likely eventually refuse to recognize church marriage. And while it will be somewhat oppressive, it will hurt government worse by denying them control of the process. |
| Posted by: Anonymoose 2012-03-04 13:09 |
| #2 Get Government out of marriage (and religion). |
| Posted by: Bright Pebbles 2012-03-04 09:46 |
| #1 I honestly believed we had them already. Anyway didn't we kick Catholics out 400 years ago, some problems with divorce I believe! :P screw it, we'll make our own religion with gay marriages and strippers and divorce and free loving and call it the Christian brainchild of England! |
| Posted by: Devilstoenail 2012-03-04 07:39 |