Anglican Mainstream

By Peter Ould

[...]  These arguments are laid out in much greater detail in the George et al paper that was published two and a half years ago and I recommend that you take a good long moment to read that before continuing.

by Steve Doughty, Mailonline

• Half of all children born this year will not be living with both parents when they reach their mid-teens
• Among the parents of 15-year-olds who stayed together, 97% were married
• Family breakdown costing an estimated £46billion a year

Nearly nine out of ten babies born to co-habiting parents this year will have seen their family break up by the time they reach the age of 16, says a study.

Half of all children born this year will not be living with both natural parents when they reach their mid-teens, and almost all those who suffer family breakdown will be the children of unmarried parents, added the report.

The study, based on figures from the national census and large-scale academic surveys, extrapolates from current trends and calculates that just 9 per cent of babies born to cohabiting couples today will still have their parents living together by the time they are 16.

The report adds that the declining popularity of marriage and the rise of co-habitation will damage the lives of increasing numbers of children.

The figures were produced by researcher Harry Benson, of the Marriage Foundation think tank, who said: ‘The report provides solid evidence that married parents are more stable than unmarried parents.

‘The contrast between married and unmarried parents who remain intact by the time their children reach their teenage years demonstrates that marital status plays a crucial role in family breakdown.

Read here

Read also:  Almost no couples with children who stay unmarried stay together, study claims by John Bingham, Telegraph

National Day of Prayer for Marriage and crucial Lords vote
 
We are issuing this joint email to urge you all to make Sunday, 2 June, a National Day of Prayer for Marriage. It is an opportunity to come together and show our very great concern for marriage.

The timing could not be more urgent. It has now been revealed that the very next day, Monday 3 June, the House of Lords will have an opportunity to vote down the whole same-sex marriage Bill.

This vote against the Bill is being led by independent Peer, Lord Dear, a highly respected former HM Chief Inspector of Police. If it succeeds, the Government's Bill will have suffered a decisive defeat.

We believe it is possible to win this vote in the Lords, and we would encourage Christians throughout the nation to pray for that result.

However – and we cannot stress this enough – if the vote does not succeed there will still be other opportunities to derail the Bill at later stages in the Lords.

Monday 3 June could be the day when the Government's plans are decisively defeated, so yes it's an important moment in the campaign. But if we are not successful, don't be alarmed, there is still all to play for.

With so much at stake, please will you pray for marriage in our nation?

Please pray:

Read the rest of this entry »

by Andrew Walker and Ryan Anderson, CitizenLink

The media claim we don’t exist. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration. But after all, we’re Millennials, born during the Reagan administration. We’re supposed to be of the generation that is embracing same-sex marriage in droves.

Instead, we’re standing strong on upholding the truth about what marriage is.

We’ve been asked—repeatedly—whether the position we’re promoting is pointless. Are we willing to endure cultural scorn for holding to a position as supposedly outmoded as natural marriage?

Politicos and pundits offer hyperbolic missives on how conservatives are losing young Americans, who are likely to be more libertarian on social issues. The preferred talking point is to assert the demise of the opposition; Same-sex marriage is “inevitable.”

A justly revered conservative columnist, George F. Will, has said twice on ABC’s “This Week” that opposition to same-sex marriage is a dying trait. “Quite literally,” he said, “the opposition to gay marriage is dying. It’s old people.”

Tweet to Mr. Will: Reports of our death have been greatly exaggerated. #NotDeadYet
 
Every generation will witness to the truth that marriage—the union of a man and woman, husband and wife, father and mother—is the very institution that determines whether our civilization stands or falls. Americans will not stay silent on cherishing and promoting this truth.

The most fundamental unit of society, marriage is founded on the anthropological truth that men and women are different and complementary, the biological fact that the union of a man and woman also creates new life, and the social reality that children need a mom and a dad.

Read here

From Christian Concern

Come and join the movement for marriage

Today Christians will gather again outside Parliament as MPs debate the Government's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill. Come and join us if you can at these times:

12-2PM and 5-7PM at Old Palace Yard, outside the Houses of Parliament.

Yesterday hundreds of Christians met up to pray, sing and hear messages from several church leaders. Footage of the gathering appeared on the major news bulletins last night. It was fantastic to see Christians singing We Exalt Thee on the BBC 6 o' clock news!

We've also put together some footage and interviews which you can watch here 

We were greatly encouraged by all this yesterday and would love for you to be a part of it today.

This is a crucial time for our nation. Please pray for God's good design for marriage to be upheld, with us in Westminster if you can or in your local area if you can't come to London.

From Brother Ivo, Cranmer

[...]  The only new contribution he can now offer is the following short observation identifying an overlooked absurdity:

If the Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill is passed, we will have Gay Marriages, and Gay Civil Partnerships. The only difference will be at the point the relationship is created. Thereafter, the rights and obligations will be identical, as will be the procedures for ending the relationship.

As Nadine Dorris has correctly identified, sex is a major component within the marital status; there is a full body of jurisprudence to support this, developed from the days of ecclesiastical legal jurisdiction. This has been entirely ignored – or, rather, deliberately excluded – from the legislating framework for these new institutions. So, in brief, we shall have a position where gay men who are 'married' will have more in common with gay civil partners who are not married, than with heterosexual couples who are.

How can this be logically described with any integrity as 'equalisation'?

Read here

By David Burrowes, Daily Telegraph

Ordinary Conservatives cannot understand why the leadership is being distracted by the issue of gay marriage, and are being treated as "pariahs" for expressing their doubts about a change in the law, says David Burrowes

I want marriage to stay as it is, as do most of those that are bothered by the issue.

The irony is that it is Tories who are leading the opposition to the Bill and the Government is dependent on Labour’s support to secure safe passage of the legislation.

The Government’s latest attempt to limit the damage of the Bill is to carefully review civil partnerships over the next few years because of the huge financial impact of heterosexual civil partnerships. If only it had showed the same care for the social impact of redefining marriage.

Sadly, it is only proving what many of us have been warning the Government about. This Bill will undermine the importance of marriage in society.

It is the freedom to express support for traditional marriage that needs protecting, but the Government’s focus has solely been on protecting churches and clergy from being forced to officiate at ceremonies with which they disagree.

I have tabled a raft of amendments that will give proper protection to people who want to keep marriage as it is. The belief that marriage is the voluntary lifelong union of a man and a woman should be specifically protected under equality laws. It is up to Conservatives to protect these freedoms.

Labour show how little they care by imposing a three-line whip on MPs to oppose these amendments. It wants to prevent MPs exercising their consciences on amendments that will protect their constituents’ consciences.

There is already a “chill factor” suppressing the freedom to stand up for traditional marriage. I have never in my 20 years in politics – as a councillor and now as an MP – experienced such hostility and hate-filled abuse simply for supporting marriage.

This intolerance has only encouraged me to do all I can in this Bill to at least protect our constituents’ freedom to express their reasonably held view. It is time to drop the Bill or at least amend it, and then let the Lords put us out of our misery and kill it off.

David Burrowes is the Conservative MP for Enfield Southgate

Read here 

By Julian Mann

Though he did not mention UKIP in his now famous declaration against the same-sex marriage bill on BBC Question Time on Thursday, Defence Secretary Philip Hammond articulated very clearly the reason why Mr Farage's outfit is providing such an attractive alternative for conservatively-minded voters.

But how reliable is UKIP on marriage? Or, to phrase the question another way, how passionate was the Conservative Party of the 1980s about restoring the institution of marriage after the ravages of the 1960s?

By John Bingham, Telegraph

It will soon be “too late” to save marriage as it has been understood for centuries, the leader of the Roman Catholic church in England and Wales will say tomorrow.

The Archbishop of Westminster, the Most Rev Vincent Nichols will issue a wide ranging attack on the Coalition’s family policies, accusing David Cameron of undermining marriage in a way that “no intelligent Government” would do.

His comments, expected to be delivered at a mass at Westminster Cathedral to celebrate matrimony, come just three days before MPs debate the same-sex marriage bill for what could be the final time.

It also emerged on Friday that gay marriage could trigger a constitutional clash between the Houses of Commons and the Lords, after a call for peers to openly defy the elected chamber because of the way the issue has been handled.

Lord Dear, the independent peer and former West Midlands chief constable, has written to hundreds of members of the Lords arguing that they would be justified in blocking the bill because, he said, it had been rushed through in a “most undemocratic and shameful” way.

He also accused the Government of ignoring “proper constitutional process”.

Read here

By Les Sillars

Jennifer Roback Morse of The Ruth Institute defends traditional marriage to young people

Jennifer Roback Morse, an economist, rejects the notion that increasing support for homosexual marriage among young people means that its legalization is somehow inevitable. She is founder and president of The Ruth Institute, a project of the National Organization for Marriage Education Fund that promotes traditional marriage to college students and other young adults. The arguments for marriage can work with that group, she said, because they’ve never heard them before. Presented well, the case is “extremely powerful.”

Do you focus on college students because they seem to be shifting in favor of homosexual marriage?

When I started The Ruth Institute in 2008, Prop. 8 was going on around me in California, but I have always wanted to talk to young people about the whole range of issues, including the fallout from no-fault divorce, cohabitation, sex outside of marriage.

Certainly young people have been swept away with the argument that gay marriage is inevitable. Also, they know kids who are openly gay or openly lesbian and they want to be nice to their friends. But that doesn’t in any way diminish the case for man-woman marriage, that the essential public purpose of marriage is to attach mothers and fathers to their children, and to one another. That is still true no matter how much you love your gay neighbor or your lesbian classmate.

Read here

From EAUK

The controversial bill to redefine marriage will be debated again by MPs on the floor of the House of Commons on 20 and 21 May as they consider amendments to the proposals at report stage and third reading.

A majority of MPs voted in favour of a second reading in February despite more Conservative MPs voting against David Cameron's bill than for it. If the bill is once again backed by MPs it will move on to the House of Lords where it is scheduled for second reading on 3 June. The approach to the bill in the House of Lords could be very different from that in the Commons. A ComRes survey earlier in the year indicated many Lords believed the proposals for same-sex marriage should be delayed until it was clearly established, for example in a national referendum, to what extent the public actually support it.

More recent polls suggest that a significant public majority consider the issue to be non-priority and potentially socially divisive at a time when tackling the economy and other headline issues are much more important. Among those voters who supported the Conservatives at the last general election, 46 per cent wanted same-sex marriage legislation dropped, with only 22 per cent in favour.

Following the recent local elections David Cameron has been widely criticised both within his own party and by the general public for being out of touch with ordinary voters. UKIP, which officially opposes redefining marriage, saw a dramatic increase in support to some 25 per cent of the national vote. Gay marriage was a notable factor in this landmark political development.

Read here

From Nola Leach, CEO, CARE; Andrea Minichiello Williams, CEO, Christian Concern; Colin Hart, CEO, The Christian Institute, Dr Peter Saunders, CEO, Christian Medical Fellowship
 
We are issuing this joint email to urge you all to make Sunday, 2 June, a National Day of Prayer for Marriage. It is an opportunity to come together and show our very great concern for marriage.

The timing could not be more urgent. It has now been revealed that the very next day, Monday 3 June, the House of Lords will have an opportunity to vote down the whole same-sex marriage Bill.

This vote against the Bill is being led by independent Peer, Lord Dear, a highly respected former HM Chief Inspector of Police. If it succeeds, the Government’s Bill will have suffered a decisive defeat.

We believe it is possible to win this vote in the Lords, and we would encourage Christians throughout the nation to pray for that result.

However – and we cannot stress this enough – if the vote does not succeed there will still be other opportunities to derail the Bill at later stages in the Lords.

Monday 3 June could be the day when the Government’s plans are decisively defeated, so yes it’s an important moment in the campaign. But if we are not successful, don’t be alarmed, there is still all to play for.

With so much at stake, please will you pray for marriage in our nation?

Please pray:
• That marriage will not be redefined, and that it will be promoted in society for the good of all.
• That on Monday 3 June a majority of Peers will vote against the bill to redefine marriage.
• For the Coalition for Marriage group as it campaigns to defend the historic meaning of marriage.
• For parliamentarians and others in public life to have the courage to stand up for their convictions.
• For the news media, that they would report the issue widely, fairly, and accurately.
• That the consequences of redefining marriage would be publicly known and properly discussed.
• That people would not face discrimination, in the workplace or elsewhere, because of their sincere beliefs about marriage.

Open prayer is encouraged, but this written prayer may also be of help:

Read the rest of this entry »

by Daniel Martin, Mailonline

Ministers are considering allowing heterosexual couples to enter civil partnerships as part of a desperate attempt to avoid defeat on their gay marriage Bill.

In yet another U-turn to placate restive Tory backbenchers, the Government has promised a review into the future of civil partnerships five years after same-sex marriage becomes law.

It will look at whether the partnerships should be scrapped – or whether they should also be offered to a man and woman as an alternative to marriage.

The government has previously refused to countenance such a move, saying it would undermine the ‘gold standard’ status of marriage.

But Tory rebels – estimated at up to 150 – said the change did not go far enough.

They said they would still vote on Monday for the immediate extension of civil partnerships to heterosexual couples – which they said was vital if marriage was to be extended to same-sex couples.

Rebel leader Tim Loughton, a former children's minister, said he was confident of victory.

‘This amendment will not wash,’ he said. ‘If this Bill passes through Parliament as it stands, both marriage and civil partnerships will be available to same-sex couples, but opposite-sex couples would only have access to marriage.

‘This cannot be fair to the many couples in loving, stable relationships who for whatever reasons do not wish to go down the traditional marriage route, but who do want a public recognition of their commitment and protections under the law that civil partnerships rightly brought to gay couples.’ 

Read here

Read also:  If you're gay, you can have a civil partnership. But if you're straight, you can't. What's equal about that? by Tim Loughton, Conservative Home

The Report Stage and Third Reading of the Government's Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill will take place next Monday and Tuesday (20 & 21 May).

Please come and pray outside Parliament on both days from 12pm – 2pm and 5pm – 7pm!

Read more here

By Charles F Capps, Public Discourse

Listening to a discussion about same-sex marriage can be like watching two ships pass in the night. Proceeding from different but all-too-often-unarticulated conceptions of what marriage is and why it matters for society, advocates on both sides tend to lock into patterns of reasoning that seem impervious to opposing arguments.

Proponents of redefining marriage to include same-sex couples point to the lack of fair legal accommodations for those who choose to live together and commingle their assets but who are not legally married. Exhibit A is the current Supreme Court case regarding the constitutionality of the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA), which arose because Edith Windsor was required to forfeit over $360,000 in federal estate taxes upon the death of her lesbian partner. To many this seems unjust, especially when assets inherited from a legally married spouse are exempt from the estate tax altogether.

Advocates of the conjugal definition of marriage point to the tremendous impact on a child’s wellbeing of the circumstances of his conception. Decades of social science have confirmed that, all else being equal, children fare best when raised by their biological parents in a stable home. Yet children cannot barter for the privilege of being born into such circumstances; and so, as is the case with other externalities, it falls to higher rungs of civil society to promote norms of long-term commitment, comprehensive sharing of life, and sexual exclusivity among those who engage in the kind of activity that can result in conception.

Read here

By Brian Brady, Independent

At present, marriages are only legal if they are conducted by religious or civic officials

Outdoor weddings could become an option for thousands of couples, after the Government agreed to consider allowing groups, including humanists, to conduct legally-binding ceremonies in England and Wales.
 
Ministers are in discussions with pressure groups about a groundbreaking change in marriage law which would give “non-religious” wedding ceremonies legal status. This is already the case in Scotland, where 2,500 humanist weddings are held every year.

The move could also cut the cost of getting married because couples would not have to hire venues licensed to host weddings.

At present, marriages are only legal if they are conducted by authorised religious or civic officials. Although the ceremonies can be held outdoors, the register must be signed inside.

The British Humanist Association (BHA) conducts more than 600 weddings every year. But the couples involved have to repeat the process in a registry office – or even a church – if they want their “marriage” to have legal status. The change has been put forward by a cross-party group of MPs scrutinsing the Government’s proposals to allow same-sex marriage. An earlier attempt to amend the gay marriage Bill to allow humanist marriages was defeated last month.

Government ministers claim the same-sex marriage Bill is not the best vehicle for making such a “significant change” to marriage law.

Read here

Read also:  Law change 'could lead to Jedi and Pagan weddings', Tamara Cohen, Mailonline

By Jeanne Smits, LifeSite News

Last weekend a number of major French cities held new rallies against same-sex ‘marriage’ that, despite the Spring vacation, attracted many thousands of participants. Organizers of “La Manif pour tous” (Demonstration for all) claim 35,000 demonstrators in Paris, 20,000 in Lyons, 20,000 in Rennes, and thousands more in Lille, Toulouse, Strasbourg, Dijon and many smaller towns.

This is the fourth major rendezvous since November 17th, not counting numberless local demonstrations in Paris and the provinces that marked every stage of the legislative procedure. On April 12th the National Assembly passed the definitive language of the “Taubira Law,” named after French justice minister Christiane Taubira who introduced the bill in the name of François Hollande’s socialist government. But opponents have promised: “We’ll never give up, never, never, never!”

Hopes are not high regarding the Constitutional Court’s decision, which is expected to give the law the green light. Weeks before the law was adopted by the Parliament, the Court’s president Jean-Louis Debré announced in an interview that the Court would probably not censure the text of the bill. It was considered a societal decision over which parliamentarians reign supreme. Rumours suggest that the Court will announce it’s decision supporting the legislation on May 16th – the International Day against Homophobia.

But this has not discouraged the French who are preparing for a drawn-out battle. The battle will include every possible means of resistance, including conscientious objection on the part of mayors who will refuse to celebrate these types of unions, judicial appeals and other types of visible action.

Read here