Say NO to Homosexual Marriage
PARLIAMENT will once again be embroiled in the issue of gay marriage from today as two private members' bills to legalise such unions are debated in the House of Representatives, with a vote on the bills likely to come after the winter session of Parliament.
A report by the House of Representatives social policy and legal affairs committee on the two bills, one from Labor's Stephen Jones and one from the Greens MP Adam Bandt and the independent MP Andrew Wilkie, will also be tabled this morning.
The committee's chairman, Labor MP Graham Perrett, said it was the largest committee inquiry ever held, with responses ''pretty strongly in support'' of change.
The committee used an online poll to gauge community sentiment, with 276,437 people responding and 64 per cent backing legalisation.
Church heavyweights have been spurred into action by the bills, with the heads of the Catholic, Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches issuing strong statements to their congregations yesterday urging them to oppose any move towards same-sex marriage.
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, wrote a letter to parishioners that was then distributed to the rectors of every Anglican church within the diocese. It was up to individual church leaders to decide whether to read the letter to congregations or simply make a copy available to them.
''It is likely that some time in the near future our parliamentary representatives will be asked to vote on a proposal to change the legal definition of marriage,'' the letter reads.
It quotes Bible extracts from Genesis on the nature of marriage and notes that ''not all can be or should be married'', including Jesus himself.
''The education of children must not be distorted by the state-imposed idea that a family can be founded on the sexual union of two men or two women as a valid alternative to that of a man and a woman,'' it reads.
The right to marriage does extend equally, it states, but only to those who are qualified, which excludes, for example, people who are already married, or siblings.
The letter urges Anglicans to communicate their views to their MPs.
''We do not love our fellow Australians if, knowing God's grace and his written will, we do not speak up and point them to God's plan for the flourishing of human relationships.''
Dr Jensen said legislation for gay marriage was not inevitable but, if it happened, would have flow-on ill-effects for religious freedom, public speech and education in schools.
''My main job is to communicate the truth as I understand it for the wellbeing of the community in which we live,'' he told the Herald. ''The Christian teaching is that sex only takes place within marriage.''
The letter distributed to Catholic churchgoers, entitled ''One Man and One Woman in a Covenant of Love and Life'', states that ''legislating for same-sex marriage will change the meaning of marriage for everyone and radically reshape the cultural and social structures of our country''.
''Homosexual people are loved members of our families and parish communities, and along with other unmarried people are invited to grow in the freedom that arises from not being controlled by our sexual desires,'' the Catholic letter reads.
The letter is signed by the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, and his auxiliary bishops, Julian Porteous, Terence Brady and Peter Comensoli.
The church with the largest weekly attendance in Australia, the Assembly of God or Australian Christian Churches churches stand overwhelming against homosexual marriage.
A report by the House of Representatives social policy and legal affairs committee on the two bills, one from Labor's Stephen Jones and one from the Greens MP Adam Bandt and the independent MP Andrew Wilkie, will also be tabled this morning.
The committee's chairman, Labor MP Graham Perrett, said it was the largest committee inquiry ever held, with responses ''pretty strongly in support'' of change.
The committee used an online poll to gauge community sentiment, with 276,437 people responding and 64 per cent backing legalisation.
Church heavyweights have been spurred into action by the bills, with the heads of the Catholic, Anglican and Greek Orthodox churches issuing strong statements to their congregations yesterday urging them to oppose any move towards same-sex marriage.
The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Peter Jensen, wrote a letter to parishioners that was then distributed to the rectors of every Anglican church within the diocese. It was up to individual church leaders to decide whether to read the letter to congregations or simply make a copy available to them.
''It is likely that some time in the near future our parliamentary representatives will be asked to vote on a proposal to change the legal definition of marriage,'' the letter reads.
It quotes Bible extracts from Genesis on the nature of marriage and notes that ''not all can be or should be married'', including Jesus himself.
''The education of children must not be distorted by the state-imposed idea that a family can be founded on the sexual union of two men or two women as a valid alternative to that of a man and a woman,'' it reads.
The right to marriage does extend equally, it states, but only to those who are qualified, which excludes, for example, people who are already married, or siblings.
The letter urges Anglicans to communicate their views to their MPs.
''We do not love our fellow Australians if, knowing God's grace and his written will, we do not speak up and point them to God's plan for the flourishing of human relationships.''
Dr Jensen said legislation for gay marriage was not inevitable but, if it happened, would have flow-on ill-effects for religious freedom, public speech and education in schools.
''My main job is to communicate the truth as I understand it for the wellbeing of the community in which we live,'' he told the Herald. ''The Christian teaching is that sex only takes place within marriage.''
The letter distributed to Catholic churchgoers, entitled ''One Man and One Woman in a Covenant of Love and Life'', states that ''legislating for same-sex marriage will change the meaning of marriage for everyone and radically reshape the cultural and social structures of our country''.
''Homosexual people are loved members of our families and parish communities, and along with other unmarried people are invited to grow in the freedom that arises from not being controlled by our sexual desires,'' the Catholic letter reads.
The letter is signed by the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell, and his auxiliary bishops, Julian Porteous, Terence Brady and Peter Comensoli.
The church with the largest weekly attendance in Australia, the Assembly of God or Australian Christian Churches churches stand overwhelming against homosexual marriage.
