Tactics not truth over same-sex marriages
by Julian Mann, The Conservative Woman:
IT WOULD seem that the response by the bishops of the Church of England to the latest attempt in the House of Lords to force clergy to conduct same-sex weddings was driven by tactical considerations rather than by transcendent truth.
Although the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Revd Dr Steven Croft, resisted the amendment by Lords Faulkner and Collins to remove the CofE’s exemption from solemnising same-sex marriages, his remarks were notable for their political tone:
‘One of the things which impedes that change of view (towards embracing same-sex marriage) in the life of the Church is a fear lest it be seen to be in any way compelled to make up its mind by external forces, even if that is not the intention of the amendment. I recognise it is not, very clearly. However, that external pressure would itself be a rallying call to those opposed to change.’
Does that not effectively amount to the CofE hierarchy pleading with the secular political establishment: ‘Please don’t bounce us into same-sex marriage now because that will fuel the reactionary forces opposed to the change that we eventually want to make through the General Synod’?
Significantly in his remarks, Dr Croft referred to the letter he sent in October, together with the Bishops of Dorchester, Reading, and Buckingham, to the clergy of Oxford Diocese, setting out their expectations for LGBT+ inclusion:
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