Good News

Yesterday the House of Commons voted in favour of same sex marriage.   This, of course, does not mean that it is law yet, there are still quite a few hurdles to be negotiated, not least the House of Lords.   I believe that in many ways the Bill is fundamentally flawed, but this is basically good news.   This means that in future marriage will be an option for all, it also means that for existing married couples where one of the partners transitions they can remain married.   I think this is an issue about equality, it is not about Theology or faith, it has been made quite clear in the Bill that most faith groups have a choice about whether they conduct these marriages or not, further because of it's unique constitutional position the Church of England is specifically excluded from conducting any same sex marriages.   Interestingly one of the flaws in the Bill is that the Church in Wales is also excluded, whoever drafted the legislation seems to have over looked the simple fact that unlike the Church of England the Church in Wales is not established.   There is still a lot of opposition to this Bill, but I suspect and hope that now this stage has gone trough the passage will be easier.

Many of the objections to same sex marriage are based on Christian teaching, yet this is not as clear as many would make us think, indeed biblical teaching on marriage altogether is rather fluid, it is difficult to separate out the teachings of church and culture against what it actually says in the Bible.   However even if a Church believes that homosexuality is sinful, in a modern secular society that is not a reason to not allow a practise.   Surely if we believe in marriage then we should make it available to all, an expression of love commitment and exclusivity.   Far too many marriages fail, but that is no argument against marriage itself, maybe once we have made marriage available to all we can also make civil partnerships available to all as well.

There are many things that worry me about our politics and our politicians here in the UK, the determined anti Europe stand of many, the unthinking dislike (verging on hate) of immigration and immigrants, the failure to address the widening gulf between the wealthiest and the poorest, the ping pong with our education system, I could (and often do) go on, but the point is I am no fan of our elected representatives so it is good to find they have done something I approve of.