Anglican Mainstream

The Sexual Orientation Regulations are in urgent need of revision as they are having the unintended consequence of undermining certain key values and standards of behaviour that have traditionally been fundamental to the nature and ethos of British society. The revision needs to protect legitimate minority rights without prejudicing equally legitimate majority rights. (Sir Richard Dannatt, Norfolk)

The struggle for freedom of conscience has led to many martyrdoms in past centuries. It is a basic human right and is fundamental to democracy. Governments that would overrule it strike at the very soul of the people. (Dr Peter May, Hampshire)

As the petition states, I am keen on freedom of speech/belief but I am unhappy at the prevailing secularist ideology/belief that actually curtails that freedom for fear of offending others. (Rev Andy Lines, Surrey)

Once religious freedom goes, the basis for freedom in this country will also disappear. (C K Tan, Staffordshire)

Equality and respect of individuals’ faith and conscience needs to be maintained without fear of prosecution and freedom of expression. (Canon Andrew Edwards, Cumbria)

The way in which the courts appear to be interpreting the current legislation seems to restrict human rights rather than promote them. In the past, vendors had a right to refuse a good or service; you were refused a drink if you were considered drunk by the publican, a taxi ride if you appeared dangerous. Surely it is our right to refuse for no reason at all, unless it is a public service. (Mr Nicholas Launders, Oxfordshire)

Muslims do not serve up pork under their roofs.  And I don't allow sexual immorality under my roof.  We fear God! (Mr Anthony Reynolds, Bucks)

There is something very badly wrong when immorality is rewarded and morality becomes a criminal offence.  The SORs must be amended so that they cannot be interpreted in this way. (Mrs Susan Day, London)

The recording by Anglican TV Ministries of AM's recent conference can be found below: 

Introduction            What is the problem?        How has culture silenced the church? I

The Bible and Sex  The Revd Professor John Nolland

How has culture silenced the church? II    Dr Lisa Nolland

The Church's Response  Evaluating the "Love is all you need" approach of Andrew Marin

What you can and cannot do as a pastor, teacher, doctor 

It pays to "be good" - sex and wisdom   Question time and close

From The Christian Institute

A Roman Catholic adoption agency has been given the chance to appeal after losing a bid to protect its pro-marriage ethos last month.

The Leeds-based charity, Catholic Care, was told by the Charity Tribunal last month that under the new Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) it would have to consider gay couples as potential adopters, despite its belief that children need a mother and a father.

However, the adoption agency has now been granted permission to appeal to the High Court over the matter which the Tribunal said was of “public importance” and “would be appropriate for the High Court to consider on appeal”.

Mark Wiggin, chief executive of Catholic Care, said the charity had not yet decided whether to pursue the appeal.

“We have to leave open the option,” he said.

The charity is one of several Roman Catholic adoption groups forced to choose between abandoning their beliefs on marriage, dropping out of adoption work or risking falling foul of the SORs.

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By Simon Caldwell, Mailonline

The adoption agency headed by Britain’s most senior Roman Catholic churchman declared yesterday that gay rights laws have forced it to stop trying to find potential homes for children.

The Catholic Children’s Society, whose president is Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster, announced that it will no longer assess individuals or couples as prospective adoptive or foster parents.

The charity has pulled out of its principal role because it cannot reconcile Church teaching on marriage and the family with the demands of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, Labour’s gay rights laws that compel adoption agencies to assess same-sex couples as prospective parents as well as heterosexuals.

The agency was founded in 1859 and the move brings to an end a service offered by one of the oldest adoption agencies in the country.
‘We do this with deep regret but have been forced into this position,’ said a spokesman.

‘The trustees are convinced that what is best for children is that they be brought up by married couples. This is shown by research but it is also consonant with the teaching of the Church.  ‘It would be totally unacceptable for our Catholic agency to act in a way that is at odds with the teaching of the Church.’  The agency will continue to offer adoption support and counselling services for the hundreds of cases it has handled in recent years.  But the decision is bound to infuriate and upset thousands of London Catholics who have poured money into the charity for decades.

Former Tory minister Ann Widdecombe last night said the Sexual Orientation Regulations, brought in under the 2006 Equality Act to ban discrimination against homosexuals in the provision of goods and services, were ‘ludicrous’.  She said: ‘It is a sign of the Britain we are in. If you do not subscribe to the prevailing orthodoxy you might as well be living in the Soviet Union.

‘Catholic adoption agencies place some of the most difficult children with new families. They could find people willing to take them and now those services will not be available … all for the sake of trying to enforce a political view.’

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Why is the image below so problematic?  There are many reasons but let me start with two.  The little baby girl or boy in the buggy has and will have two daddies and not even one mummy.  Nor will she or he ever have a mummy.  Moreover, this state of affairs — where she/he has been intentionally stripped of her/his mother or mother figure — is not a sad by-product but a deliberate creation of our ‘enlightened’ PC culture,  I imagine that ‘gay’/lesbian couples who have manged to adopt are very devoted and heavily invested parents, but they cannot provide their little girl or boy with a mother and a father, can they?  And as my readers know now (I would hope), mothers and fathers have overlapping but also complementary roles in the lives of their children.  Gender matters!   And when we are not in denial we realise such is the case.  A final thought here is that these two males, relating to each other emotionally, psychologically and romantically/sexually, are unable to provide a template for their daughter or son to see ’how it is done’ — how a man bonds to, invests in and loves a woman, and how they ‘do’ marriage and life together.  This is one of the underlying reasons why children raised by SS couples are more into the ‘alternative’ sexual scene.  Modelling also matters!  

By Steve Doughty, Mailonline

Catholic adoption societies which refuse to offer children to gay couples face closure following a tribunal yesterday.

Judges ruled in a test case that the charities, which find homes for hundreds of children each year, will be breaking the law if they refuse to accept same-sex couples as adoptive parents.

The ruling means some Catholic agencies face a choice between abandoning their adoption services or their religious principles.

One diocese has already said it is likely to close its adoption charities.

Some of the long-standing charities have not opposed adoption by same-sex couples since Labour’s 2007 Sexual Orientation Regulations stated that no organisation or company may discriminate against gays.

But yesterday’s appeal ruling by the Charity Tribunal confirmed that those which have stuck to Roman Catholic teaching must now do the same or give up trying to get children adopted.

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From The Christian Institute

The Scottish Government has been seeking a survival route for Roman Catholic adoption agencies to stop them being shut down because of their religious beliefs about marriage.

The agencies only place children with married couples or single people, in keeping with the church’s teaching. But ‘gay rights’ laws mean this policy could be challenged in court.

It has emerged that Scottish Education Secretary Fiona Hyslop lobbied the Westminster Government to give the agencies an “indefinite” exemption from the Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs) introduced in 2007.

In the event, the agencies, which have a reputation for finding homes for ‘hard-to-place’ children, were given a short-term exemption which ran out at the start of this year.

At least one of the UK’s Roman Catholic adoption agencies has decided to close, while seven others have cut their ties with the Church and changed their policies to allow same-sex couple applications.

Notes from a 2007 meeting between Fiona Hyslop and Scottish Cardinal Keith O’Brien have now emerged.

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From The Christian Institute

Conform or perish
Only last year, after initially denying that the sexual orientation regulations would have any adverse effect on the businesses of people who had a moral or religious objection to homosexual practice, the then Equalities Minister, Meg Munn, finally admitted that the regulations could have a major impact. In a letter to the Family Education Trust, she revealed that wedding photographers not wishing to be involved with civil partnerships would have to go into a different branch of photography, and suggested that a wedding chauffeur could always specialise in corporate travel. As for hotel proprietors, if they were not prepared to allow same-sex couples to share a double room, the only option open to them under the law would be to do away with double rooms altogether and only offer single rooms. The message could hardly have been clearer: you have got to conform or face going out of business. 

The Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill represents a further example of permissive lawmaking with its removal of the requirement to consider the need of a child for a father before granting IVF treatment and provisions allowing for the construction of animal-human hybrids, the creation of ‘saviour-siblings’, and the increased use of embryos in stem cell research.

From The Christian Institute

A bid by a Roman Catholic adoption agency to continue placing children with married couples only has been rejected by the Charity Commission.

The Catholic Children’s Society in Westminster wanted to clarify its ‘charitable objects’ – the official description of its purposes – to refer explicitly to placing children only with married heterosexual couples.

It had hoped that by specifically describing its Roman Catholic character in its objects it would be allowed to continue placing children according to the Church’s official teaching on marriage.

However, the Charity Commission has turned down the request.

The Society sought the clarification in a bid to retain its Roman Catholic ethos without breaking new ‘gay rights’ laws.

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By Hilary White

WREXHAM, Wales, September 23, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – The St. David’s Children’s Society, the Catholic Church’s adoption agency in three Welsh dioceses of Cardiff, Menevia and Wrexham, has voted to cut its ties with the Catholic Church in the face of the new law that requires them to adopt children to homosexual partners. The Society said it would cut its ties with the Catholic Church in order to comply with the Labour government’s Sexual Orientation Regulations (SORs), part of the Equality Act 2006, that ban "discrimination" against homosexuals in the provision of goods and services.

There is growing anger among Catholics over the readiness of the adoption agencies to abandon their religious ethos. Neil Addison, a Liverpool-based Catholic barrister and author of a text book on religious discrimination and hatred law, said, "Charity trustees seem to assume that they can stop being a Catholic charity and then simply carry on." But he said the charities were "established by Catholics and given Catholic money on the basis that it would be used in accordance with Catholic beliefs. To use its funds for un-Catholic purposes seems unethical and possibly illegal." 

To read the entire article

A Message from Bishop David Anderson

In a larger setting, five Anglican bishops, based in the USA but overseeing their respective overseas provinces’ missionary work in North America, wrote a letter to the GAFCON Primates’ Council providing a requested analysis of the Windsor Continuation Group’s (WCG) Reflections. One of their observations is that no one in the WCG consulted with them or sought out the participation of those who are most directly affected by the suggestions. Additionally, they noted the offensive and demeaning terminology used which compared the victims of TEC’s heterodoxy and tyranny to disaffected children needing to be restored to the ‘proper province." The bishops also noted that the carefully balanced recommendations proposed by the Primates at their meetings in Dromantine and Dar es Salaam have been abandoned in favor of these new proposals without acknowledgement that the primary reason for their failure was their unilateral rejection by the Episcopal Church.

From the WCG’s flawed reflections and suggestions to those who support the same, there has been a continued and persistent lack of compassion or adequate consideration for the North American victims of the Canadian and American Provinces’ behavior. Those who have little practical wisdom but always much to say are critical of those who actually act, and in particular, critical of GAFCON and the GAFCON Primates’ Council, which is now in the process of organizing for action.

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A gay Christian who won a discrimination claim against the Church of England was awarded more than £47,000 in compensation today, the organisation backing him said. John Reaney, a 42-year-old from North Wales, took the Hereford Diocesan Board of Finance to an employment tribunal after his appointment to the role of youth worker was blocked on the grounds of his sexuality by the Bishop of Hereford, the Rt Rev Anthony Priddis.

Stonewall, the gay equality organisation which funded the claim, said the Diocese of Hereford was today ordered to pay Mr Reaney £47,345. A spokesman for Stonewall said this included £33,000 for loss of future earnings and £7,000 damages specifically awarded for “psychiatric injury”.

Mr Reaney said: “I’m delighted that this case is finally over. Lesbian and gay Christians working within the Church of England are entitled to be treated with humanity. I’m very grateful to Stonewall for supporting this case throughout.” Stonewall chief executive Ben Summerskill said: “We’re delighted that the tribunal has sent such a robust signal, both to the bishop and other employers. “The substantial level of compensation sends out a very clear message. Not even a bishop is above this law.”

According to Stonewall the Bishop’s costs are estimated to be a further £50,000. Stonewall added that the tribunal had also said it expects the Bishop to undergo equal opportunities training.

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The Christian Institute: US photographer sued for not covering lesbian ceremony
Last updated: 29 January 2008

They do not want to ban hatred.  They want to ban dissent.  Freedom of speech, it it means anything at all, must include freedom to offend.   UK Black Church Leader, 2007, quoted by Don Horrocks, EA, House of Commons General Committee, Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill.  18 October 2007

The Times

Government plans to criminalise the stirring up of hatred against gays and lesbians are in disarray because of a Cabinet split over the need for such a law. The split – between Baroness Scotland of Asthal, the Attorney-General, and Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary – are likely to scupper plans for a new offence.

Baroness Scotland has privately expressed concern about the controversial legislation proposed by Mr Straw, The Times has learnt.

Mr Straw announced the plans last month with the backing of Harriet Harman, the Equalities Secretary. He had said that he would bring forward an amendment to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill this month to extend the law that already protects religious and racial groups, carrying up to seven years in jail. He had also said that he would listen to views about whether the incitement offence should be extended further to cover hatred against disabled and transgendered people.

But Baroness Scotland, who is also determined to crack down on the problem of homophobic behaviour, believes that there are sufficient laws on the statute book to deal with the issue. She also has concerns about the difficulities of getting the proposal through the House of Lords, which gave a rough ride to measures on incitement to religious hatred and substantially watered them down. She is understood to have told colleagues that she wants to see more successful prosecutions in this area, but is unconvinced that a new law is the way to do it and would prefer to focus on existing procedures.

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The Government has published its proposed ‘homophobic hatred’ law. Parts of the law are modelled on the religious hatred law but there is no specific free speech protection.
 
Only ‘threatening’ words or behaviour will be covered by the Government’s current wording, not those which are ‘insulting’ or ‘abusive’ (both very broad terms).
 
In addition, a prosecutor must prove that a person intended to stir up hatred on grounds of sexual orientation, rather than having been ‘likely to’ stir up hatred. This mirrors the religious hatred law.

Some of the concerns about free speech appear to have registered with Government ministers. Thank you for your letter writing and your prayers.
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Dr Edwards said: “To remove religious conviction from the public square is as sensible as removing the engines from an aircraft in flight. For a while the plane may glide and to all extent seem fine, but before long the altimeter will only be headed in one direction, by which time it is too late to start remembering how it was you got airborne in the first place.

“A tolerance which calls for the removal of conviction is no tolerance at all. If modern day politics seeks to silence or exclude voices, be they religious, gay or atheist, then a key pillar of an open society will have been destroyed and we will be the poorer for it. It is our task in this debate to persuade society that tolerance is not the absence of conviction, or even of conversion. It is the absence of coercion. In a liberal democracy it is more intolerant to disallow religious views based on secular prejudice: after all, secularism is just another religious position.”

From Times Online

November 14, 2007

Ruth Gledhill Religion Correspondent of The Times

Secularists have condemned the leader of Britain’s evangelicals as “unChristian” after he accused them of exhibiting intolerance of his religious views.

The National Secular Society has attacked Dr Joel Edwards, leader of the Evangelical Alliance, for remarks made at the end of an address by Chief Rabbi Dr Jonathan Sacks on the need for religious tolerance.

The row gives just one insight into the future difficulties of enforcing legislation against incitement to hatred against homosexuals and against incitement of religious hatred.

Dr Edwards, who has been appointed a commissioner on the newly-formed Equality and Human Rights Commission, has been accused of making a career out of “opposing equality for homosexuals”. After news of his appointment emerged, secularists described his organisation as “one of the most homophobic in Britain, sheltering extreme anti-gay groups.”

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The Government has now published its Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill (formerly the Human Tissue and Embryos Bill) and has announced that the Bill will receive its second reading in the House of Lords on Monday 19^th November. This will be the first opportunity for Parliament to debate the Bill (no vote will be taken on 19^th November), so it is imperative that we write to peers of the House of Lords this week informing them of what the Bill says and what the implications of the Bill will be.
Links

• To view the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill, use the link below

  http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/pabills/200708/human_fertilisation_and%20_embryology.htm

• To view our short video on the Bill, go to http://www.ccfon.org/ccfontv.php and click on “CCFONtv – July 2007: Abortion and Human Tissue and Embryos Bill” (The film was made in July and so is a little out of date but the issues remain the same. Please consider showing this film in your church home groups, youth groups etc)

This Bill should concern us all and we should write to members of the House of Lords in order to alert and inform them of what the Bill means. Both the detail and the philosophy behind the Bill are disturbing. The philosophy is nothing less than the deconstruction of the traditional family and a radical change in what it means to be human. We believe the Bill to be a dangerous experiment which puts the interests of the children affected at risk and has unknown consequences for the human race. The main issues are, in summary, as follows.

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The Commission press release stated:”Rev Edwards, a British immigrant from Jamaica, is an honorary Canon of St Paul’s Cathedral, and is passionate about unity in the church.

“He was a probation officer for 14 years and the senior pastor of Mile End New Testament Church of God for 10 years before becoming the first black general director of the Evangelical Alliance in 1997.

“He has previously been involved in the Metropolitan Police Independent Advisory Group, the Government’s “Working Together” interfaith consultation group and an advisory group to HM Prison Service.

“Rev Edwards has vast, multiple-level experience of human rights issues at first hand, and is ideally placed to bring to the new EHRC a wealth of practical and pastoral wisdom, allied to a keen awareness and understanding of the tensions created by a swiftly changing social environment.

“Enjoying an accessibility and acceptability across the broad religion and belief spectrum, his expertise in cooperative consensus management and conflict resolution – as well as a deep appreciation of the philosophy underlying human rights aspirations – uniquely qualifies him to make a crucial contribution to the EHRC.”