Gay Marriage

[ll_billym]

How pathetic are the church? They tried to pull The Bible out and now they are referring to a dictionary.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-politics-17329902

Why can't they just admit that they are scared that this will diminish their already waning power? The church does not own the word 'marriage', the taxpayer owns this word and most taxpayers rightly do not care a jot about who gets 'married', let alone whether they are the same sex or not.

The only reason I care is that to my mind it is another nail in the coffin of religion. All thoughts welcome!

[mike11111]

Oh dear! Was it a deliberate malapropism?

[mushroom25]

pyrex - what test tubes are made of.

[mike11111]

I'm sure test tubes were around long before Pyrex.

[mushroom25]

quite possibly - at the risk of going off-topic, the fact that the truth told was a little inaccurate, the oblique allusion to test-tube children was the point of the gag. anyway, don't shoot the messenger, it wasn't my gag, I just repeated it.
:-)

[mike11111]

I thought that it was an allusion to contraception, and that Pyrex had been substituted for Durex. Must stop trying to read too deeply into things.

[tamborine]

philtaz, the RC church doesn't protect paedos; its the local legals who do that. Everyone has the right to prosecute anyone & priests/vicars/imams & rabbis who abuse children in UK.

[Philtaz]

You sure about that tamborine?

http://www.guardian.c...ts-active-church-role

http://en.wikipedia.o...holic_sex_abuse_cases

[LoftyLottie]

Ratter, if you are still there. I think you misunderstood me. I agree with you 100%, what I was trying to point out was that grasscarp inferred that civil marriages were about legalities and finance, unlike Religious Weddings. My civil marriage was about commitment. I have no issue with anybody not wanting to get married.

[trt]

I am not religious or against gays male or female but, getting married in a church seems a bit silly to me.

Why dont they just live together and not make a fuss, if they love each other a religious service wont make any difference?

[tamborine]

chuck fickens ".....They also think 19mth old naughty children should be shot

(oh and they thought in the Falklands... I assume this means they were a philosopher in the Falklands and not just illiterate.)....."

What's this about ?

[tamborine]

The RC church has no legal jurisdiction to prosecute its clergy; the church can only remove defaulters but that's not to protect its clergy but more to protect the parish.

Its up to the community to seek prosecution of abusers.

[mike11111]

Whatever one's views on this issue, the fact remains that (pace Birdie) the Church, Roman or otherwise, is not legally or morally obliged to do anything when it comes to Holy Matrimony (a terminology which seems to be conveniently and studiously ignored at the moment). Even to this day there are some priests in the Church of England who will not sanction the marriage of a heterosexual couple where one of the partners is divorced. Like it or not, that is their prerogative and an attitude which is impervious to the passing fads of modernity. Given the rabid atheism of the majority of proponents of same-sex marriage, I can't see what they are getting uptight about in the first place. I also suspect, though I am no expert on the matter, that those of the Muslim faith have an attitude very similar to that of the mainstream Christian churches on this issue, yet I see no headlong rush to condemn them to the same extent as Christianity. I wonder why?

[tamborine]

Even Prince Charles & Camilla couldn't have a formal marriage ceremony in church due to them being divorcees.

They only received church blessings.

[NOX]

Getting married is nothing to do with any one religion's power crazy ideas, it's to do with two people of any sex deciding to make a lifelong commitment to one another. I don't think many gay people would really want to get married in a Roman Catholic church where everyone is treated as soiled goods from the word go anyway. The church does not own the concept of marriage, it just thinks it does and has had it's own way for the last 2,000 year and doesn't like it now that some of it's ' children' are standing up to it and ignoring it's self appointed custodianship of what ought to be a very beautiful thing.
Speaking of children, I can absolutely guarantee from first hand experience Tamborine that the RC church protects, hides, colludes with and otherwise assists peadophile priests and priests and nuns who are just cruel and sadistic people unsuited for their chosen profession. I was not sexually abused by our priest but I finally plucked up courage to ask him and a nun for help because my father was regularly beating me to the point I thought I might actually die one day. He called me a liar and marched me back to my father and told him what I'd said. The nun said I must be a very wicked boy and ought to pray more. Nice. People like that should not be in charge of other people's happiness, and certainly ought not to have the power to decide who marries and who doesn't.

[Noraq]

Nox....your post made me cry....hugs to you. xx

[NOX]

Thank you Noraq, that's very kind.

[Noraq]

I was advised by my priest and confessor not to leave an abusive husband and to pray that I might become more like Our Blessed Lady!!. makes me wish that some of their bullskite teachings (like the fires of hell) were true...I'd like to think they might "suffer there for all eternity"..Bastwards!!!

[NOX]

It never ceases to amaze me how the church manages to turn the victim into someone who is somhow at fault. I hope things are better for you now Noraq.

[jackthehat]

This has nothing, at all, to do with getting married 'in church'. Churches will not be compelled to marry same-sex couples.

It means that gay couples can undergo a service and at the end of it be able to refer to themselves as 'married' rather than 'in a civil partnership'.