GAY TRUTH

English: Flag of the Anglican Communion (Photo credit: Wikipedia ) The Anglican Church should be free from state interference when selecting its leaders, their lawyer argued today. A Human Rights Tribunal hearing into alleged discrimination of Eugene Sisneros ended at Auckland District Court today. Mr Sisneros took the Anglican Bishop of Auckland to the tribunal claiming he was barred from becoming a priest because of his sexuality - a claim the bishop denied, saying he was simply following the church 's doctrines. Mr Sisneros' lawyer David Ryken yesterday told the tribunal's three-member panel excluding someone from a training programme because of their sexuality breached Section 38 of the Human Rights Act. However, in closing arguments for the Anglican Church today, Professor Paul Rishworth argued that organised religions were exempt under Section 39 of the act. He argued a similar clause existed in the recently passed Marriage Amendment Bill, wher

In France, young people are gathering regularly to sing and pray for marriage. In Nantes, they gather at the foot of the Cross of Charette, where a famous French hero was executed in 1796. In Great Britain , David Cameron 's push for gay marriage has left his Conservative party in electoral tatters, as local elections this week proved. (From the Iron Lady to the Rubber Man in just two decades!) Here in the United States , Delaware and Minnesota both redefined marriage, making a mockery in the latter state of the voters who were told there was no need to pass a marriage amendment because there was no threat to marriage. Hard losses, yes, but the fight goes on—and not just in Illinois and the vast majority of other states that still protect marriage. Bishop Thomas Tobin of Rhode Island has just  published a letter  to faithful Rhode Island Catholics, inviting them (and I think all of us) "to a moment of prayer and reflection as we respond to this new challenge of t

Author:  John Milbank  is  Research Professor  of Politics,  Religion and Ethics  at the  University of Nottingham , Director of the  Centre of Theology and Philosophy The controversy surrounding gay marriage has now reached a fever pitch in countries like  Australia  and the  UK , as governments have begun to move past debate and towards legislative change. While such intensity can have the benefit of clarifying just what is at stake - on both sides of the  argument  - it can also obscure some of the deeper, intrinsically related issues. So, in the UK, the arguments put forward by the coalition government in favour of legalising gay marriage have been, appropriately, at once liberal and conservative. In liberal terms it is seen as a matter of equal rights; in conservative terms a matter of promoting the good of faithful, long-term relationships for homosexual as well as  heterosexual  people. Those resisting the change - mostly, but not entirely, religious people - argue that the iss