In an op-ed appearing on LifeSiteNews, Peter Saunders, CEO of the UK's Christian Medical Fellowship is reporting on the gay man who has taken Bishop Ross Bay, the Anglican Bishop of Auckland, to the Human Rights Tribunal because the Bishop won't allow him to enter the priesthood. The man, who can't be named for legal reasons, claims he has been trying to become a priest since 2006 but has been refused entrance because he's homosexual and living with a partner.
The Human Rights Act of 1993 does allow exceptions to some discrimination laws, such as churches that are following their religious doctrine.
Bishop Bay denies the allegations, saying that the man was refused entrance "by reason of the defendant not being chaste in terms of canons of the Anglican Church." Anyone involved in a sexual relationship outside of marriage would not be accepted to train as a priest.
"The case is illustrative of the sort of litigation that will become commonplace once same sex marriage is legalized," writes Saunders.
"At the end of the day this is not about ‘legal equality’ – already granted by civil partnerships – or ‘love’ – nothing currently stands in the way of such relationships. It is largely about the desire for affirmation and recognition."
Nothing infuriates some sections of the gay rights lobby more than the fact that some members of society - such as Christians - still refuse to accept, affirm and even celebrate their sexual relationships, he says.
"The Bible is very clear that the only context for sexual intercourse is within a lifelong heterosexual marriage relationship," Saunders writes.
"If this aspiring priest wishes to be ordained he needs to acknowledge and respect that by giving up his claim to ordination or by becoming celibate. He can't have it both ways."
He concludes: "Even if he is successful in challenging the rules in a human court he will not be successful when he attempts to justify himself before God who set the rules in the first place."
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