Anglican Mainstream

By Andrew Carey, CEN

The reality of illiberal liberalism is all around us at the moment, both within church and state. The rows over women bishops and gay marriage illustrate a deeply worrying trend in which majorities fail to provide sufficient space in which minorities can flourish
with integrity and freedom.

Monday’s edition of The Times (10 June) provided ample evidence. Firstly, the new appointee to the bishopric of Manchester, David Walker, suggested the possibility of dissolving General Synod if agreement cannot be reached on women bishops. This is dangerously close to suggesting that the democratic process can be dispensed with if you can best achieve your aims without it.

We see this tendency more widely in the use of the judicial system to overrule democratic decisions.

In reality, last November’s General Synod narrowly defeated the legislation on women bishops on the basis that it failed to give enough provision for traditionalists. All that it would have taken to pass the legislation in a short time was slightly greater provision that carried the support of two-thirds of the House of Laity. A simple step and only six votes were needed. Instead the House of Bishops has allotted to give traditionalists less certain provision and the abolition of the 1993 Act of Synod in favour of mere vague possibilities.

I suspect the same process of starving your opponents of space will be played out more widely over gay marriage. There are already signs that promises to Churches on religious freedom are to be broken.

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by Matt Chorley, Mailonline

Conservative MPs claim they were threatened by party whips to back gay marriage or their political career would be finished.

Tories were also reportedly warned they would lose financial and organisational backing at the next election if they refused to fall into line – something party insiders dismissed today as ‘categorically untrue’.

More than a dozen angry backbenchers have now written to peers urging them to oppose the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill in a key vote on Monday.

David Cameron has said he is ‘proud’ to have supported same-sex weddings, arguing that young boys at school who think they might be gay and are being bullied will 'stand a bit taller' as a result of the government passing equality laws.

But last week 130 Tory MPs voted against gay marriage legislation.

Officially it was a free vote, with the Prime Minister at pains to stress that those who oppose it are not ‘wrong-headed or bigoted’.

However, today it was claimed that intense pressure was put on ambitious Tory MPs to support the reform, which has been seen as key to what remains of Mr Cameron’s modernisation of the party.

It also emerged that the key vote in the House of Lords could be held after 2am on Tuesday morning, with supporters of same-sex marriages fearing it could be defeated.
 
A letter signed by 15 MPs, including former Tory ministers, urges peers to reject the Bill, arguing it has no mandate. The letter was published by the Guido Fawkes blog.

Read here

From Guido Fawkes

By Jason Groves and Steve Doughty, Mailonline

David Cameron’s promise to protect churches from gay marriage laws could hit legal hurdles, a justice minister admitted yesterday.

Crispin Blunt said it would be hard to guarantee that clergy would not face court challenges if they refused to preside over same-sex unions.

‘We’re seeking to protect, indeed, proscribe religious organisations from offering gay marriage,’ said Mr Blunt, who announced two years ago that he is gay.

Crispin Blunt said it would be difficult to guarantee that clergy would not face court challenges if they refused to preside over gay marriages

‘That may be problematic legally, but the proposal the Government are putting forward is that marriage should be equal in the eyes of the state whether it’s between a same-sex couple or between a man and a woman. We’ll have to see what happens with that.’

Mr Blunt’s comments appear to undermine reassurances from both Downing Street and Home Secretary Theresa May yesterday that churches will not be affected by the law.

The remarks will be seized on by critics who insist that legalising gay marriage will eventually force bishops to accept same-sex marriages.

Government ministers yesterday insisted the controversial change would go ahead by 2015, despite a ferocious backlash that saw the Roman Catholic Church join the Church of England in condemning the move

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By Fr John Flynn, Zenit

Christians are finding it increasingly difficult to practice their faith in the public sphere, as a number of recent cases demonstrate.

By Richard Orange, Telegraph

Homosexual couples in Denmark have won the right to get married in any church they choose, even though nearly one third of the country's priests have said they will refuse to carry out the ceremonies.

The country's parliament voted through the new law on same-sex marriage by a large majority, making it mandatory for all churches to conduct gay marriages.

Denmark's church minister, Manu Sareen, called the vote "historic".

"I think it's very important to give all members of the church the possibility to get married. Today, it's only heterosexual couples."

Under the law, individual priests can refuse to carry out the ceremony, but the local bishop must arrange a replacement for their church.

The far-Right Danish People's Party mounted a strong campaign against the new law, which nonetheless passed with the support of 85 of the country's 111 MPs.

"Marriage is as old as man himself, and you can't change something as fundamental," the party's church spokesperson Christian Langballe said during the debate. "Marriage is supposed to be between a man and a woman."

Read here

By Alexander Boot

Dave’s whip isn’t going to see the light of day when Parliament votes on homomarriage. Under pressure from the party he leads but doesn’t really belong to, Dave has decided to give Tory MPs a free vote on the issue. That will please many of his parliamentary colleagues, including some of the front-bench variety, notably Philip Hammond and Owen Patterson.

But, predictably, Nick will have none of that. He’s demanding a whipped vote that would guarantee the easy passage of the measure. No big surprise there: name any Western tradition of long standing, and you can confidently predict Nick will be against it. He can also be counted upon to support any counterintuitive idea, provided it’s subversive enough.

What’s good about Nick though is that he doesn’t beat about the bush concerning his reasons, no matter how asinine.  [...]  And speaking of conscience, Nick’s principal argument against a free Tory vote takes this word in vain. ‘We are not asking people to make a decision of conscience,’ he said. ‘We are not asking any person with religious convictions to sacrifice anything,’ he added, meaning that no priest will be forced to marry homosexuals if he doesn’t want to.

That’s simply nonsense, and even Nick, living proof that expensive education doesn’t always work, must realise it. Surely he knows that our established Church has been like a weathervane, turning every which way depending on where the secular winds are blowing. Without repeating what I wrote on women’s ordination just a couple of days ago, suffice it to say that the Church has evidently surrendered to every secular fad to come round the block. Those who think it’ll stand fast against this particular one are simply deluding themselves. And if a hopelessly traditional vicar demurs, then that’s what we have the European Court of Human Rights for.

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By Thaddeus Baklinski, LifeSite News

By Patrick B Craine, LifeSite News

Illinois’ remaining Catholic adoption agencies are seeking an emergency court injunction after the state ended their contracts last week over their refusal to participate in same-sex adoptions. The state’s move would end a thirty-year-old partnership and affect 2,500 foster children.

“They made a choice,” Gov. Pat Quinn, a Catholic himself, told reporters in a July 11th press conference. “They have a law in Illinois. It’s the civil unions law. I signed it into law. We’re not going back. Any organization that decides that because of the civil unions law that they won’t participate voluntarily in a program, that’s their choice.”

The Thomas More Society, acting on behalf of Catholic Charities in the dioceses of Peoria, Joliet, and Springfield, will ask a Sangamon County judge for an injunction Tuesday.

The agencies had sued the state last month asking the court to declare that their policy of not recruiting unmarried couples for foster care was within the law.

But Erwin McEwen, director of Illinois’ Department of Children and Family Services, informed the agencies on July 8th that the state would not accept their contracts for fiscal year 2012 because they had “made it clear” that they would not comply with the new Act.

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From CARE

From BBC News

South Wales Police say they are dealing with the largest number of cases of forced marriage and honour based-violence they have ever seen.

In the past 12 months, the force has dealt with 49 cases of forced marriage, up from a typical 30-35, with new cases almost every week.

The four Welsh forces have been involved in about 60 cases, with four in north Wales in six months.

The figures are released to coincide with International Women's Day.

A forced marriage, as opposed to an arranged marriage, is where either bride or groom, or both, do not consent to a wedding and are coerced into accepting it.

In many cases they are told they will bring their family shame or dishonour if they refuse.

Read here

By Carolyn Moynihan, MercatorNet

A German mother is in prison as a result of resisting state measures to force objectionable “sexual education” on her children. Her husband has already served his 43-day sentence. The couple bring the number of Christian parents imprisoned for this reason to 10.

Heinrich and Irene Wiens belong to the Baptist Church. Their case has been taken up by the United States based Alliance Defense Fund (ADF) — a Christian legal alliance defending religious liberty, sanctity of life, marriage, and the family.

In June 2006, the Wiens objected to their children’s attendance at both a mandatory stage play and four school days of so-called “sexual education” classes. Both parents believed the programs contradicted their sincerely held religious beliefs, as they and their four children are active in the Christian Baptist Church. The Wiens kept their children at home during the programs and instead instructed them in their own Christian values on sexuality. The parents were subsequently sentenced by a lower court in June 2008 and both were fined a total of 2,340 Euros (approximately $3,250 U.S.), which they refused to pay on legal and moral grounds.

Hence the prison sentences.

Read here

By Judith Woods, Telegraph

Judith Woods visits the Christian guesthouse owners who were sued for refusing a homosexual couple a bed for the night – and finds them defiant, despite the hate campaign which has started against them.

Britain’s most reviled landlady is perched on the edge of her creamy sofa with its plump duck egg blue cushions and lovely matching pouffe. Did I say pouffe? No offence. To anyone. I meant, of course, footstool.

Not since the heyday of the Colosseum have devout Christians like Hazelmary Bull and her husband Peter been thrust into such gladiatorial combat with the gay militia and nerves are jangling on both sides of the counterpane.

Last week the Bulls were ordered to pay a homosexual couple £3,600 compensation after refusing them a double room at their guest house, Chymorvah, in the Cornish village of Marazion. Steven Preddy and Martin Hall, who are in a civil partnership, successfully sued the Bulls, who were found guilty of breaching sexual orientation regulations last September. And since then the telephone has been ringing off the hook with provocative gay callers thrusting their pink pounds at them and threatening further legal action if they don’t accept the booking,

“Fortunately, it’s off-season so we’re closed – although I’ve had one man screaming 'Liar!’ down the receiver at me when I said so,” says Bull, 66. “I’m relieved to have the breathing space to decide what to do next, and we’re taking legal advice, but the one thing I do know is that we will not go against God’s teachings in the Bible.”

Read here

By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Telegraph

The Government is being asked to remove the Church of England's exemption from equality laws if it does not end the bar to women being made bishops

A group of influential MPs will tomorrow call for Parliament to intervene over the historic reform as fears grow that the Church will reject plans allowing female bishops.

The cross-party group, including former ministers Frank Field and Stephen Timms, and Simon Hughes, the deputy leader of the Liberal Democrats, is concerned that the General Synod, the Church's parliament, may not pass legislation designed to end the glass ceiling for women clergy.

Traditionalists believe that a rise in the number of opponents of female priests to the Synod has improved their chances of blocking the law, which can only pass if it receives a two-thirds majority in the houses of laity, clergy and bishops.

Many of them feel that the current legislation does not provide sufficient concessions to those who cannot accept women as bishops.

However, Mr Field has tabled an early day motion, which could abolish the Church's current exemption from equality laws relating to gender discrimination and ultimately force it to consecrate women.

Read here

By Patrick B Craine, LifeSite News

The move in Saskatchewan to force marriage commissioners to perform same-sex “marriages” neglects the fundamental importance Canada has always bestowed on the freedom of conscience and religion, and threatens to undermine the conscience rights of medical practitioners, says Bishop Fred Henry of Calgary [right].

By David Wilkes and Beth Hale, Mailonline

Two registrars are under investigation after being accused of juggling rotas to avoid conducting civil partnership ceremonies.

The pair allegedly claimed they could not preside over the civil partnerships because it went against their religious beliefs.

Instead of simply refusing to carry out the ceremonies, the two, who work at Lambeth Register Office, in South London, are understood to have informally swapped shifts.

This is said to have been exposed when a registrar giving a talk at a Lambeth Council ‘diversity training’ seminar used it as an illustration.

Sources claim the registrar used the shift-swapping tactic as an illustration of good practice.

A gay member of staff was horrified that staff were swapping shifts as a way to ‘get around the law’.

She complained to the council’s chief executive, Derrick Anderson, and an inquiry was launched.

Read here

Kenneth Howell was told after the spring semester ended that he would no longer be teaching in the UI's Department of Religion. The decision came after a student complained about a discussion of homosexuality in the class in which Howell taught that the Catholic Church believes homosexual acts are morally wrong.

Howell has been an adjunct lecturer in the department for nine years, during which he taught two courses, Introduction to Catholicism and Modern Catholic Thought. He was also director of the Institute of Catholic Thought, part of St. John's Catholic Newman Center on campus and the Catholic Diocese of Peoria. Funding for his salary came from the Institute of Catholic Thought.

One of his lectures in the introductory class on Catholicism focuses on the application of natural law theory to a social issue. In early May, Howell wrote a lengthy e-mail to his students, in preparation for an exam, in which he discusses how the theory of utilitarianism and natural law theory would judge the morality of homosexual acts.

"Natural Moral Law says that Morality must be a response to REALITY," he wrote in the e-mail, obtained by The News-Gazette. "In other words, sexual acts are only appropriate for people who are complementary, not the same."

He went on to write there has been a disassociation of sexual activity from morality and procreation, in contradiction of Natural Moral Theory. Read Greg Griffith here
 

By Thaddeus M Baklinski, LifeSite News

The Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) will appear before the Saskatchewan Court of Appeal Thursday, May 13 and Friday, May 14 in a case involving proposed legislation that would allow the province's marriage commissioners to refuse to perform same-sex "marriages" because of sincerely held religious beliefs.

In July, 2009, Justice Minister of Saskatchewan, Don Morgan, asked the Court of Appeal for an opinion on the constitutionality of the potential legislation. Morgan told the media that his government intends to fulfill its promise to provide a religious exemption to marriage commissioners, and to settle the issue with legislation. This is intended to resolve the situation that has seen marriage commissioners sue the provincial government over its insistence that they perform homosexual "marriages."

One version of the legislation would provide complete freedom of conscience and religious objection to officiating at same-sex "marriages" for all commissioners. The other legislative option would introduce a grandfather clause providing a religious exemption from performing same-sex "marriages" for individuals who were commissioners before homosexual "marriage" was legalized in 2004.   Read here