Commentary by Susan Brinkmann, OCDS
In what many are calling the biggest I-told-you-so moment of the year, a wealthy same-sex couple in Britain has decided to sue the Church of England for refusing to marry them in the church.
The Daily Mail is reporting on the story of Barrie Drewitt-Barlow, 42, and his civil partner, Tony, whose claim to fame was being the first same-sex couple in the UK to have both names listed on the birth certificate of a child. The couple, who now have five children by surrogate birth, has decided that when the UKs new law allowing gay marriage takes effect this summer, they want to seal their union in a church.
“I want to go into my church and marry my husband,” he said. “We need to convince the church that it is the right thing for our community for them to recognize us as practicing Christians.”
He continued: “I am a Christian – a practicing Christian. My children have all been brought up as Christians and are part of the local parish church. . . . It upsets me because I want it so much – a big lavish ceremony, the whole works.”
Drewitt-Barlow said it was a “shame” that he and his partner are being forced to sue the Church in order to have the wedding of their dreams.
“The only way forward for us now is to make a challenge in the courts against the Church,” he said.
The UK’s new law contains an exemption which promises to protect the Church of England, the Roman Catholic Church, and any other church from being forced to conduct same-sex weddings against the will of its leaders and followers. In fact, a church must legally opt-in before they can conduct same-sex ceremonies on their premises, making it unlawful for ministers to marry same-sex couples unless their organization’s governing body has agreed to do so.
In addition, the government promised to amend the Equality Act of 2010 to ensure that no discrimination claim could be brought against a church for refusing to marry a same-sex couple.
“However the guarantees will have to be tested in the courts and gay rights groups have been expecting to bring an early challenge,” the Mail reports.
The problem in the UK is the same as in the US with activist judges in certain courts ruling in favor of same-sex couples.
“We warned Mr. Cameron this would happen,” said Colin Hart, of the Coalition for Marriage. “We told him he was making promises that he couldn’t possibly keep. He didn’t listen. He didn’t care. He’s the one who has created this mess. Mr Cameron’s chickens are coming home to roost and it will be ordinary people with a religious belief who yet again fall victim to the totalitarian forces of political correctness.”
He added: “We now face the real prospect of churches having to choose between stopping conducting weddings, or vicars, and priests defying the law and finding themselves languishing in the dock.”
This new situation in England is a bold example of how Christians are being persecuted in the West by militant homosexuals and their partners on the bench who talk a good game about “equal rights” even while they do everything in their power to insure “unequal rights” for everyone else.
The only good news is that the public is becoming increasingly frustrated with the bullying tactics of homosexual groups and the more they over-reach, the more certain it is that any headway they have made into changing public opinion will erode.
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