Monday, October 15, 2012

Homosexual marriage 'sacrilegious and sociopathic'

The party conference season may be about over, but the argument for and against same-sex marriage has lost none of its heat.

Norman Lund, writing on Anglican Mainstream's website, says homosexual marriage is "sacrilegious, sociopathic and heretical."

Sacrilegious because marriage was instituted by God Himself and is beyond the right or authority of earthly governments to change or redefine. Sociopathic because it denies a child's need for a mother and a father. Heretical because it violates God's revealed will concerning homosexual behaviour, violates the commandment to honour one's father and mother by denying that marriage requires a father and a mother, and violates, he says, the commandment against adultery by denying that marriage requires a husband and a wife.

The Government's most senior lawyer, Attorney General Dominic Grieve, warned that homosexual marriage would raise "profound philosophical difficulties" for some workers in the public sector.

There would be "individual conscience" issues for workers who would have to obey the rule of law by carrying out their public duties. A serious debate was now needed about the extent to which individual conscience should be accommodated.

Opponents of homosexual marriage warn that what is now happening in the United States could happen here.

* Dr Angela McCaskill is the first deaf black woman to be granted a PhD by Gallaudet University, a national US university for deaf people. She has worked at the university for more than 20 years as its chief diversity officer, teacher, administrator and leader. She has been suspended from her job at the university because she signed a petition for the people of Maryland to be allowed to vote on same-sex marriage.

* Crystal Dixon, an administrator at the University of Toledo, was fired after writing a letter - as a private citizen - to the editor of a Toledo newspaper respectfully opposing the notion of homosexual rights and explaining God's plan for human beings. Activists later tried to keep a city from hiring her.

* Viki Knox, a special education teacher in New Jersey, wrote a message on her personal Facebook page criticising the school's promotion of a "Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender History Month." People demanded she should be fired and planned protests. The lawyer who began the attack on her said "Hateful public comments from a teacher cannot be tolerated. She has a right to say it. But she does not have a right to keep her job after saying it." Under pressure and facing threats not only to her job and her pension, Viki Knox chose to resign.

* Julea Ward, a graduate student at Eastern Michigan University, was dismissed from that school's counselling programme after asking permission to refer a client to another counsellor because she was uncomfortable affirming the client's same-sex relationship.