Views, Visions and Values.: Equal Marriage : Just Plain Wrong: A Christian Per...

Views, Visions and Values.: Equal Marriage : Just Plain Wrong: A Christian Per...: Today, both in the United Kingdom and other Countries, we face the challenge in the name of Equality and Tolerance to allow same sex ...

Council tells churches they must conduct gay marriages

Council tells churches they must conduct gay marriages

Churches

Simon Calvert of The Christian Institute said the Council’s letter shows the need for churches to know their legal rights.

He said, “there is no legal reason whatsoever for churches to stop holding marriages in the ways they always have. They are free to do so”.

The Christian Institute has produced a new free legal guide which gives reassurance that churches are well within their rights to say no to same-sex marriages.

Bureaucrats

“The behaviour of Essex County Council goes to show why churches need to know their legal rights, because bureaucrats who want to push for gay marriage will try and go beyond the law”, warned Mr Calvert.

He added: “We want to be clear that Christians still have the right to express their belief that marriage is between a man and woman. Christians have every reason to be confident and bold in upholding the truth about marriage.”

“This is just the kind of thing we feared would happen,” said Colin Hart, Campaign Director of the Coalition for Marriage, which spearheaded opposition to the introduction of same-sex marriage.

A litmus test for orthodoxy

A litmus test for orthodoxy

The Evangelical Alliance’s decision to remove Steve Chalke’s organisation Oasis from membership raises the question of what defines an evangelical today. Justin Brierley reflects on why homosexuality has become the latest tipping point.

‘So where do you stand on homosexuality?’ asked the church leader I had met only five minutes ago.

We were attending a media event, and had reached the wine-and-canapés-hobnobbing part that inevitably follows. It’s the kind of question which, in any other context, would seem vastly inappropriate from someone you had just been introduced to. ‘Terrible weather we’ve been having...so what do you think about gay sex?’

There is an unwritten (and slightly depressing) rule in some evangelical circles that the quickest way to ascertain if a person is ‘sound’ is to find out what they think about sexuality. We live in a world of ever-increasing categorisation, and homosexuality seems to have become the de-facto crunch issue that can potentially mark you in or out of the evangelical fold.