Bishop John

Protecting the Sanctity of Marriage

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Bishop John

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I received a letter recently from Senator Stephen Parry:

Dear John

I have recently received a petition from the Tasmanian Council of Churches to which you were a signatory where you indicated strong support for protecting the traditional understanding of the definition of marriage.

Whilst I am committed to maintaining the Australian tradition of tolerance and respect I, like you, believe very strongly that the union of Marriage between man and woman is sacrosanct.

As such I will argue to uphold the sanctity of marriage.

Thank you for taking the time to sign the petition.

Yours sincerely,

Senator Stephen Parry

Chief Oppositon Whip in the Senate

Deputy Manager for Opposition Business in the Senate

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Comments

2 responses to “Protecting the Sanctity of Marriage”

  1. Philip Theobald Avatar
    Philip Theobald

    The word ‘marriage’ is used so freely in our society that it seems to me that we Christians are in danger of being seen as hypocrites. We espouse the concept of marriage as a union of a man and a woman based on biblical authority.
    We accept marriages as valid that are openly not religious provided they are between a man and a woman.
    We increasingly accept divorce, a state institution as a valid end to Christian marriages.
    Have we not created a state of confusion between Bible based or Christian marriage, secular marriage and secular divorce.
    If we as Christians accept the validity of secular divorce without question, by what authority can we argue against the state’s right to validate a secular marriage between same gender couples.
    I have no difficulty with Christians refusing to regard any secular marriage as not being a Christian marriage whether between different gendered couples or same gendered couples.
    Perhaps it is time to clear up the confusion between secular and religious marriage and for the state to and church to be truly separate.

  2. Bishop John Avatar
    Bishop John

    Hi Philip,

    Will Briggs has written a letter to Malcolm Turnbull which addresses a number of the issues you raise. See, http://briggs.id.au/jour/2011/02/saving-marriage/

    Also, the Social Issues Executive have written a briefing on this – I have it on pdf but it should soon be available on their website. It will be number 090, http://www.sie.org.au/briefings/ If it doesn’t turn up email them or me for a pdf copy.

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