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Religious extremists against love: Italy, Australia, USA
Friday May 19th 2006, 7:07 pm
Filed under: General
Pope urges opposition to gay marriage
Pope Benedict XVI has renewed his attack on gay marriage, saying Christians must defend traditional heterosexual marriage as a “pillar of humanity” benefiting both believers and non-believers.
Calling on the faithful to stand up for traditional notions of marriage and procreation in the face of moves to recognise gay marriage, he said: “Such a witness can only stimulate politicians and legislators to safeguard the rights of the family.
“It’s well known that legal solutions like so-called ‘civil unions’ are gaining ever greater acceptance, even if, while they exclude the responsibilities of marriage, they claim the same rights.
“Sometimes, there is the wish even to change the definition of marriage to legalise homosexual unions, granting them the right to adopt children.”
The comments are stronger than remarks Pope Benedict made two days ago, which were criticised by some members of Italy’s incoming centre-left Government as unwanted interference in a political issue.
“The Church’s interventions [on gay couples] are now becoming daily and really do represent a crusade on Parliament and lawmakers, aimed at blocking any discussion of the rights of new couples,” Franco Grillini, a member of Parliament of the Democrats of the Left and honorary chairman of Italy’s gay rights movement Arcigay, said.
Prodi’s promise
Centre-left leader Romano Prodi, who is due to be appointed prime minister next week, included in his election manifesto a promise to legally recognise civil unions.
He has stopped short of introducing gay marriage and will not allow same-sex couples to adopt.
But his coalition is split on the issue, with some wanting greater rights for gay couples and some opposed to the move.
“In Parliament there’s a cross-party majority to stop this secular attack on the institution of family, based on marriage between man and woman,” Clemente Mastella, leader of the UDEUR, a small Christian Democrat group in Mr Prodi’s coalition, said.
Gay unions are already legal in several European countries, including traditionally Catholic Spain.
In Australia, the ACT this week passed laws recognising civil unions.
- Reuters
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Those ACT civil unions, available to same sex couples, have caused much breast beating. One of the chief teeth-gnashers is Tasmanian Senator Guy Barnett, who skites:
“My proposals in 2004 resulted in the Marriage Act being defined as a union between a man and a woman to the exclusion of all others. This amendment arose from a letter I drafted to the Prime Minister and signed by 30 of my Coalition colleagues. The Marriage Act now does not recognise same sex marriages and nor should it recognise anything else that is essentially marriage by another name.”
Which sounds theoretical, maybe.
But here you can download in his own words, Senator Barnett’s threat to crush the ACT legislation for its acknowledgment of relationships he disapproves of.
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and in the US, the far right takes a leaf from the Australian book of official queer wedding panic:
Between June 5th and 7th, the U.S. Senate will vote on the Federal Marriage Amendment (FMA), a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Christian Right leaders like James Dobson, head of Focus on the Family, Richard Land, president of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention, and Tony Perkins, president of the Family Research Council are rallying their supporters in preparation for the vote.
Richard Land has encouraged Southern Baptists to participate in Marriage Protection Sunday on June 4th. According to Land, Marriage Protection Sunday will be a way for pastors to educate Southern Baptists “about the threat to marriage posed by same-sex marriage.”
Pastors could distribute information about same-sex marriage on that Sunday, perhaps preach on the issue if God should lead them to do so, and hold a postcard signing time at the end of the service. The churches could gather the postcards and deliver them to a local office of their senators or mail them to their senators’ DC offices.
The Federal Marriage Amendment would define marriage as the union of a man and a woman, making marriage for same-sex couples illegal everywhere in the U.S. It would also prevent states from conferring the legal rights of marital status on unmarried couples. If passed, the amendment could affect civil unions and domestic partnerships through the enforcement of the FMA on the state level.
Read Tanya Erzen’s whole story here.
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Still relevant:
Hey, hetero!
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Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Ben’s pal Pell is readying his Great to be Straight submission to the New South Wales government’s inquiry into adoption:
“The Catholic Archbishop of Sydney, Cardinal George Pell, told the Herald this week that children had a right to a “mother and father”.
Dr Pell said the church would present the review with “sociological findings” on children who grew up in marriages, de facto heterosexual relationships and same-sex partnerships. He said there was “significant evidence about the benefits of marriage” over same-sex partnerships.
Dr Pell said he could “never anticipate” the church’s welfare and adoption agency, Centacare, working to place children with same-sex couples.
The Prime Minister, John Howard, also opposes adoptions by same-sex couples.
The NSW Government overhauled adoption laws in 2000 but rejected a recommendation by the NSW Law Reform Commission to extend adoption rights to gay couples.
The resulting Adoption Act 2000 requires the minister to report to Parliament within six years on whether the law fulfils its aim of serving the best interests of children. The Department of Community Services is conducting the review and will report to Ms Meagher by November.
Read the whole Sydney Morning Herald article here.
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And still sadly, still relevant:
Hey, hetero!
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Many thanks to Chloe Martin for research assistance and enthusiastic barracking.
2 Comments
What would Jesus do - cut the minimum wage?
Wednesday May 17th 2006, 6:30 pm
Filed under: General, Public Information Service: Know your politician
Ian Harper is not only a religious man in private; he has announced that God will help him set pay rates for Australia’s poorest workers.
Remarkably, however, the chairman of the new ‘Fair Pay Commission’ has argued against “fair and reasonable wages”. Which might make you ask, which deity was that, again?
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GOD will guide the man charged with setting the minimum wage.
The head of the proposed new Fair Pay Commission, Ian Harper, revealed yesterday that he wants to use the post to do “God’s will” and will rely on his faith and values to make fair and balanced decisions for low-paid workers.
“I’ll be praying for wisdom … praying for courage and praying above all that God’s will is being done through this, not mine,” the committed Anglican said.
“I’m a Christian. I believe in God and I believe that God’s will is important to be done in the world. It means I hold very dear to the values of fairness, justice, honesty, integrity in the process that I’ll use to be making a decision with my fellow commissioners.”
In a speech to the Australian Christian Lobby conference in Canberra, the respected economist also admitted he did not know many low-paid people and would ask his “church connections” to arrange for him to meet the people whose wages he will decide.
“I don’t meet many low-paid people in my line of work, so I’ve got to find ways of getting to that constituency,” he said.
Professor Harper described the new job as daunting because the commission’s decisions could not be rejected. “You may feel that’s too much power, and you may be right,” he said.
Read the rest of Phillip Hudson’s Age article here.
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For more background, check out this coolly-observed encyclopaedia entry.
6 Comments
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