Anglican Mainstream

By Michael Kirke, MercatorNet

As was widely anticipated, President Obama’s “evolution” on the marriage question has now reached its final resting place in the gay lobby camp. But the political consequences are not so clear and the electoral rout which the other convert to the redefinition of marriage cause, Britain’s David Cameron, experienced at the polls last week might be worrying him. But really, given his imprisonment – not necessarily an unwilling confinement – by the ultra liberal caucus, he had little choice as to which side of the fence he was ultimately going to choose.

Political observers in Britain are already speculating that the coalition government there, following the disastrous showing in last week’s nation-wide local elections, rewrote the content of yesterday’s Queen’s Speech, the speech written by the Prime Minister but read by the Queen to Parliament and outlining the forthcoming legislative plans. “Gay marriage” was not mentioned in the speech.

However, it does not mean the plan has been abandoned. The Chancellor, George Osborne, said the “reform” plans were being postponed in favour of “the things that really matter” to voters, namely the economy. Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone assured the gay lobby that there will be “no U-turn,” saying it will be brought in as promised by 2015. The are proceeding with their strange consultation. “There was never any plan to include equal civil marriage in this year’s Queen’s Speech. Our consultation is still ongoing and it’s important we listen to people’s views.” People are not being consulted as to whether or not they want marriage redefined, just about how they want it redefined.

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From Cranmer

His Grace has noticed something: when right-wingers quote Jesus or other verses of Scripture in defence of the traditional view of marriage as a union of one man and one woman for the purpose of procreation , they are increasingly cast as religious wing-nuts and homophobic bigots. But when left-wingers invoke Scripture or Christ to the cause of same-sex union, there is a veritable frenzy of enlightened jubilation that they have grasped profound truth and seen the light. Those believers who once walked exclusively in the heterosexual valley of the shadow of death have found true comfort in the gay staff of righteousness; those who once insisted on blind gender complementarity can now see; those who were lame in arguing for mothers and fathers can run a marathon of rainbow joy that one may have two fathers (or mothers). When the antediluvian heterosexual-marriage bigots repent of their medieval myopia, the angels weep for joy and all the heavenly host rejoices.

Yesterday, President Obama declared himself a supporter of same-sex marriage. He announced:

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By Ben Johnson, LifeSite News

President Barack Obama has flip-flopped on gay “marriage” for the second time, endorsing same-sex marriage in an interview today, in which he said his decision was motivated in part by his Christian faith and his belief in the Golden Rule.

Daily Telegraph Editorial

David Cameron is promising a voter-friendly agenda – so why waste time on the reform of the Upper Chamber?

[...]  Mr Cameron’s shift in tone is welcome – but will tomorrow’s Queen’s Speech pass that test? It is hard to answer in the affirmative as long as House of Lords reform retains its place in the legislative timetable. Even some of Nick Clegg’s own colleagues have signalled their understanding that this is hardly the most pressing issue the Coalition faces – yet the plan refuses to die. This will not only bog the Government down in months of parliamentary infighting, but could damage the governance of the country: as David Davis and others have argued, the Upper Chamber’s expertise and independent status has been instrumental in restraining executive hubris on a range of issues. Kicking the Bill into the long grass would send a powerful signal that the Prime Minister means what he says and is focusing on the issues that really matter.

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By Tim Ross, Telegraph

Gay couples will be guaranteed the legal right to marry before the next general election, a Liberal Democrat minister has said.

Lynne Featherstone, the equalities minister, defied Tory backbench MPs who want the proposal to be dropped, declaring: “There will be no U-turn on equal marriage.”

She said the Coalition would continue to focus on “core issues”, such as reducing the deficit, at the same time as introducing laws allowing same-sex couples to marry by the end of this Parliament.
 
Her remarks, on her constituency blog, will fuel tensions between Liberal Democrats and Tories over the direction of the government.

Since last week’s poor election results for both Coalition parties, a succession of Conservatives have demanded that David Cameron and Nick Clegg abandon “fringe issues” and focus on the economy.
 
Miss Featherstone insists that the coalition can introduce equal marriage and secure the economic recovery at the same time.

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From C4M

From The Christian Institute

A Conservative government minister has said that his party’s poor performance at the local elections is partly down to its bid to redefine marriage.

Gerald Howarth, a defence minister, made the comments after his party lost hundreds of seats, including some in the Prime Minister’s own constituency.

Mr Howarth told the BBC: “There are issues, for example, like the proposal for gay marriage.

“A lot of Conservatives have written to me saying ‘I am a lifelong Conservative, there is no mandate for this, why is this being proceeded with?’”.

He also commented that the contentious issue of reforming the House of Lords may have been a factor.

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By Sam Lister, Theo Usherwood, Independent

by James Park, Pink News

From The Christian Institute

The Prime Minister is alienating his own voters in his Witney constituency because of his support for redefining marriage, a new poll shows.

Two thirds of his constituents want to keep marriage as it is – between one man and one woman.

That number climbs to 75 per cent amongst the people who voted for him at the last general election.
 
A majority, 56 per cent, think he is out of touch with ordinary voters on the issue.

At the weekend a separate national poll showed that the Tories face losing up to 30 parliamentary seats and 1.1 million votes if the Government presses ahead with redefining marriage.

Anxious backbench Tory MPs have been deluged by complaints from constituents and are alarmed that the party is haemorrhaging votes over the issue.

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By Peter Mullen, Telegraph

The Tories will not recover from the catastrophic election defeat which faces them this week. They don’t deserve to – because they have spent the last two years alienating their core supporters. These supporters, of whom I used to be one, are very largely old-fashioned, traditional middle class voters. I suppose we can be described as “respectable” – before, as GK Chesterton said, that word became very unrespectable.

What we old Tories stand for is the defence of the realm against foreign enemies and the maintenance of law and order at home. In these matters the Tory party under Cameron has betrayed us. The armed forces have been run down, even to the extremity of a proposal that we might have to share an aircraft carrier with the French – thus prompting the question of what we do with our half of it when their half surrenders. The riots of last summer are all the evidence we need to prove that the government cannot maintain law and order.

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Read also:  How Politics Really Happens – another internal putsch by Peter Hitchens.  The real political changes of the past 25 years or so have not taken place at general elections, but within the political parties.

By Alexander Boot

A week ago Cardinal Keith O’Brien, Britain’s senior Catholic cleric,delivered the kind of courageous message Anglican prelates tend to save until their retirement.

He referred to same-sex marriage as a ‘grotesque subversion of a universally accepted human right’, adding that Dave’s chosen re-election stratagem would ‘shame the United Kingdom in the eyes of the world’. It represents, he said, ‘an attempt to redefine marriage for the whole of society at the behest of a small minority of activists’.

Truer words have seldom been spoken. And the man who spoke them is qualified to do so: marriage being an ancient Christian sacrament, His Eminence was clearly staying within his remit. It is part of his job to comment on any moral choice we face, and such a choice is discernible behind everything in life.

Economic decisions, for example, can – or rather should – never be amoral. Whenever they are, they backfire not only on morality but also on the economy. The present state of the economy was caused precisely by divorcing economics from morality, be that on the part of our governments, financial institutions or indeed us, the public.

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From the Daily Express

DAVID Cameron was warned yesterday against ignoring the views of his party’s traditional backers.

The warning came after a poll suggested his support for gay marriage could cost the Tories between eight and 30 seats in a general election.

The survey was for the Coalition For Marriage, which campaigns against same-sex couples marrying on equal terms to heterosexuals.

Opposition was very strong among people who voted Tory in 2010 but are intending to support other parties.

Thirty-two per cent of this group said plans to allow gay marriage made them less likely to vote Conservative.

Opposition to gay marriage is also strong among older voters, who are more likely than young people to turn out on polling day. Andrew Hawkins, chairman of ComRes polling company, which carried out the research, said the Conservatives must win back disaffected 2010 voters in order to succeed at an election.

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By John Jansen, Life News

Remember that in past history other governments have tried to force Christians to huddle and hide only within the confines of their churches like the first disciples locked up in the Upper Room.

 

In the late 19th century, Bismarck waged his “Kulturkampf,” a Culture War, against the Roman Catholic Church, closing down every Catholic school and hospital, convent and monastery in Imperial Germany.

 

Clemenceau, nicknamed “the priest eater,” tried the same thing in France in the first decade of the 20th Century.

 

Hitler and Stalin, at their better moments, would just barely tolerate some churches remaining open, but would not tolerate any competition with the state in education, social services, and health care.

 

In clear violation of our First Amendment rights, Barack Obama – with his radical, pro abortion and extreme secularist agenda, now seems intent on following a similar path.

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By Devan Jacobson, Digital Journal

United Kingdom – Following a coalition government decision to legalize same-sex marriage last fall, a Catholic attorney warns that the Catholic Church and others could be prosecuted despite assurances to the contrary from PM David Cameron's government.

In September of 2011 British Prime Minister David Cameron's coalition government announced its intention to grant legal recognition of same-sex marriages by 2015, apparently as a direct result of pressure from the PM himself. The proposal would apply to England and Wales.

As to the PM's level of involvement in the decision, the Daily Mail quotes an anonymous Downing Street official close to Cameron as saying "He [Cameron] was very keen to press ahead on this."

The policy was formally debuted that same month in a speech by Equalities Minister Lynne Featherstone to a Liberal Democrat Party conference in Birmingham. A jubilant Featherstone declared to the conference: "I am delighted to announce today that in March this Government will bring in a formal consultation on how to implement equal civil marriage for same-sex couples."

"The Government will be obliged to permit same-sex marriage on religious premises on exactly the same basis as it permits heterosexual marriage," Neil Addison was reported as saying, according to reporting by Britain's Catholic Herald on Friday. Mr. Addison is a practicing attorney and National Director of the Thomas More Legal Centre, a non-profit, Catholic legal advocacy group.

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By Stephen Gray, Pink News

Labour MEPs have criticised Tories this week for abstaining from a vote at the European Parliament on an amendment strengthening LGBT protections, with Tories accusing them of ‘grandstanding’ in response.

The European Parliament adopted its report on human rights this week and suggested additional action for the coming year. An LGBT rights amendment was passed by 353 votes to 268 with 52 abstentions, with no Tories voting in favour of it.

[...]  Labour MEP Richard Howitt, who sponsored the report, said: “This shows the Tories as they really are. It’s a disgrace that they did not support my amendment calling for, for example, the European Commission to advocate the withdrawal of gender identity from the list of mental and behavioural disorders in their negotiations on the recent version of the International Classification of Diseases.

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By Michael Kirke, MercatorNet

Britain’s Sunday Times newspaper, one of Rupert Murdoch’s more prestigious titles, has criticised the Cameron-Clegg coalition there for its plans to redefine marriage in non-conjugal terms. It accuses the British government of simply trying to make people “believe it is a modern, with-it coalition facing opposition from a church stuck somewhere in the Dark Ages.”

“Mr Cameron is pushing gay marriage and picking a fight with the church for political reasons. It is indeed unnecessary”, the paper’s editorial declared in last week’s edition and quoted a former British Labour minister, the openly homosexual Ben Bradshaw, as saying that the proposal is totally unnecessary. “He, like most other gays in civil partnerships, is happy to call it a marriage. The further step proposed by the government is, he says, an unnecessary distraction.”

And another fusillade against Cameron has come from one of his own Conservative Party faithful, former Government minister and now Privy Council member, Ann Widicombe. Writing in another British paper, the Daily Express, she distances herself from the current administration and says that having seen all this coming down the tracks before the last election she was very sparing in her support for Cameron’s political campaign.

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From The Christian Institute

By Nicholas Cecil and Joe Murphy, London Evening Standard

Bishops were today in revolt over plans to impose VAT on improvements to cathedrals and churches.
 
The Most Reverend Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales, said the move was “regrettable”.

The Bishop of Southwark, the Right Reverend Christopher Chessun, warned that extending VAT to cover listed building improvements would “cause a great deal of difficulty for those caring for the nation’s heritage”.

He added: “The extra costs this tax will impose on building projects, which enhance community and other use, will damage the ability of the church and others to undertake important work in building social cohesion.”

The Bishop of London, the Right Reverend Richard Chartres, has written to Chancellor George Osborne urging him to exclude places of worship from the VAT extension or to boost a rebate scheme from which churches can reclaim spending on this tax.

The Treasury said that this grant scheme had been increased by £5 million to offset the VAT change.

But religious leaders have warned that the extra money will not fully cover the increased bill from having to pay VAT, at 20 per cent.

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From UKPA

Chancellor George Osborne is under pressure to abandon another plank of his Budget, amid warnings that his so-called "heritage tax" would cost churches tens of millions of pounds.

Senior Tories joined church leaders in calling on Mr Osborne to rethink his plans to end the VAT exemption for improvement, alteration and restoration works to Grade One and Grade Two listed buildings.

The Church of England – which has 12,500 listed buildings – has reportedly estimated the move will cost it around £20 million a year unless changes are agreed.

An e-petition on the Downing Street website calling for the levy to be dropped has already attracted more than more than 12,000 signatures, while senior Conservative backbencher Sir Peter Bottomley denounced the measure as a "blunderbuss" and said ministers must now find an "accommodation" with the church.

"The Church of England has half the listed buildings in the country," he told BBC Radio 4's The World at One. "The Government I think either needs to start saying we'll recognise the special position of those looking after places of worship – which will be predominantly the Church of England – or roll back this provision, or do something which will make life fairer.

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Read Cranmer here