AM Comment on the Equalities Minister’s Response to opponents of ‘gay marriage’
The Equalities Minister [Daily Telegraph, 25 February 2012], whilst agreeing with former Archbishop Lord Carey that marriage ‘is owned by neither the state nor the Church . . . (but) is owned by the people’, goes on to insist that the Coalition has a duty to push ahead with its proposed changes. Arguing that the Government’s fundamental job is . . . to shape the future’, she interprets this to mean that it must not back down on its plan to legislate to introduce ‘gay marriage’.
We welcome the acknowledgement that the state does not own marriage. That in itself raises the question how marriage is to be defined in a free society. Who is to decide its nature, morality and covenantal content? Ms Featherstone appears to be believe it is the government’s right to assume that responsibility and entrench it in statute law. Does this mean that government will expect religious organizations that from time immemorial have defined marriage now to conform to its precepts? If that is what the Equalities Minister is saying then it is indeed ironic that a Government which is committed to free markets, the free exchange of ideas and the protection of differing views is now moving into state control of social legislation.
To attempt this in a free society would be to go far beyond anything that the colonial and imperial powers have tried to do. They never sought to impose their definitions of marriage on their Muslim or Hindu populations. The colonial powers were wise enough not to press their views.
Neither the church not the state own marriage. The church is, however, called to witness to the many goods of marriage that is a “given” of the created order. It is clear through the act of procreation that a man and a woman are needed for the birth of children and the well-being of children is linked to the covenantal relationship of their biological parents. This good of creation is witnessed to by the scriptures and teachings of many religions and philosophies. In a free society Governments, whose duty it is to legislate on behalf of all the people, should take care not to step outside their own legitimate sphere of competence.
Vinay Samuel and Chris Sugden
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