New Zealand Churches must choose Homosexual marriage or obedience to scripture
Same-sex marriage in New Zealand has become a near certainty after legislation to allow it passed its first reading in Parliament on Wednesday by 80 votes to 40. Labour MP Louisa Wall, who is sponsoring the Marriage (Definition of Marriage) Amendment Bill, says the legislation will not force church priests or ministers to conduct same-sex marriages. So why has the Bill attracted so much opposition from church leaders? Reporter Allison Rudd investigates. For Neill Ballantyne, who is gay and a Christian, the likelihood same-sex couples will be able to marry is something to be celebrated.New Zealand introduced civil union ceremonies in 2005 and since then 2152 couples - 1685 same-sex couples and 467 opposite-sex couples - have opted for civil unions. To all intents and purposes, civil unions are almost identical to marriage. But they are not marriage.
Mr Ballantyne, the Otago University Students Association queer support officer and national secretary of the Student Christian Union of Aotearoa, said the legislation would be an important symbolic change, allowing couples of all sexual orientations to finally be treated equally. "The institution of marriage holds a lot of cultural value and acceptance and it is important for same-sex couples to have that right.
A separate civil union ceremony, even if such a ceremony is available to opposite-sex couples, is degrading. It's not about the numbers, it is about rights and choices." If the legislation is passed, it is not clear whether ministers and priests will be able to opt out of marrying gay couples.
While Ms Wall says they will, a legal opinion obtained by Family First NZ from barrister Ian Bassett says marriage celebrants, including church ministers, will be in breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the Human Rights Act 1993 if they refuse to perform their public function because a couple seeking to be married is gay.
It is also not clear how many same-sex couples will want a church wedding. Already, it is estimated only about 20% of marriages are conducted by priests or ministers and have any religious content. Mr Ballantyne knows some conservative churches and Christians strongly oppose the legislation, believing homosexuality is a sin and allowing same-sex couples to marry strikes at the heart of their theological belief that marriage is the preserve of one man and one woman.
New Zealand's mainstream churches have been grappling with those issues for years. Some, like the Catholic Church, have definite views and seem in no hurry to review them. Other denominations have started or completed the debate. In 1990, Dr David Bromell, of Dunedin, was ordained as the first openly gay Methodist minister in the country, sparking a furore which eventually split the church.
Many members, some ministers and several entire congregations left in protest and established the breakaway Wesleyan Methodist Church in 2000.
The Presbyterian Church, which had allowed the ordination of gay ministers, banned similar appointments in 2004 and went further. It issued a moratorium saying no-one "in a sexual relationship outside of faithful marriage between a man and a woman" could be ordained or a church leader, effectively ruling out gay people and those in de facto relationships.
The Anglican Church also has a moratorium against the ordination of people living in openly gay relationships. Now it is tackling the issue head-on, establishing a commission to summarise the biblical and theological work done by the church on the ordination of gay priests and same-sex civil unions during the past 30 years. The commission's report on options and implications of change will be discussed at the 2014 Anglican general synod.
The Rev Dr James Harding, assistant priest at All Saints Anglican Church, North Dunedin, and a senior lecturer in Old Testament studies at the University of Otago, said the debate going on in Parliament was unlikely to influence the views of anyone in the church. While most church leaders agreed that the Bible was the authority on marriage, they disagreed on how to interpret scripture, he said.
"On one hand, we have conservatives who are very attached to the idea of marriage being one man, one woman, and very attached to the thought that that is the only way to read the Bible. Liberals, on the other hand, would prefer to look at the quality of relationship that two people have, regardless of the gender they happen to be." The concept of marriage in scripture developed over 2000 years into "a rich and complicated idea", he said.
"The gay marriage debate raises the point that it is very difficult from scripture to decide, 2000 years after the texts were written and 10,000 miles from where they were written, exactly how to apply them now."
In Old Testament times, 3000-5000 years ago, there was a deeply patriarchal society. A daughter was part of her father's household and another man paid a bride price for the right to take that daughter as his woman. Polygyny - where a man could marry several women but a woman could not marry more than one man, was the norm.
These days, Old Testament texts were often ignored or mocked, he said.
"You can find that mocking quite easily on the Internet, where Biblical marriage is defined as having 300 wives and 700 concubines or being raped and being forced to marry your rapist."
By New Testament times, the definition of marriage in scripture had evolved.
"That is obvious. It had evolved to the point where the writer of Ephesians, thought to be Paul, doesn't think of marriage in polygynous terms but thinks of it as one man and one woman ...
That picks up on the Creation story, where the woman is created as a companion for the man." Modern-day churches did not pick and choose randomly what they believed from the Bible, but relied on the New Testament, Dr Harding said.
However, even conservatives inside and outside the church sometimes changed their minds about homosexual relationships but have to ignore scripture completely to live with themselves.
"Usually, it is because someone they care for deeply is in a same-sex relationship - a child, a brother or sister, or, very occasionally, a spouse who comes out to them. "They change their minds because they love that person for who they are and they realise their sexuality is not the thing that can prevent them continuing to love them." They misunderstand that love involves correcting and rebuking as scripture requires. If you choose not to correct or rebuke you do not shop Godly love.
Both Dr Harding and Mr Ballantyne believe New Zealand will continue to slowly liberalise its view towards same-sex relationships and marriage.
But Dr Harding said it was much harder to see what direction the churches would choose - whether they would entrench or not.
He emigrated to Dunedin from the UK nine years ago and said Anglican church leaders there who had supported the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England in 1967 seemed to be gradually becoming more conservative in their views.
Whatever happens with Ms Wall's Bill, both Mr Ballantyne and Dr Harding say there will continue to be Christian gay, lesbian and transgender people who struggle to find a church home because they demand to be accepted as they are without repenting of their sin.
Some, like Mr Ballantyne, will switch from a more conservative denomination or congregation to one they feel is more accepting.
"Unfortunately, I do think a lot of gay Christians lose their faith or move away from the church full stop because they see it as a persecutor, because many homosexuals want two things their sin and God." Mr Ballantyne said.
Mr Ballantyne, the Otago University Students Association queer support officer and national secretary of the Student Christian Union of Aotearoa, said the legislation would be an important symbolic change, allowing couples of all sexual orientations to finally be treated equally. "The institution of marriage holds a lot of cultural value and acceptance and it is important for same-sex couples to have that right.
A separate civil union ceremony, even if such a ceremony is available to opposite-sex couples, is degrading. It's not about the numbers, it is about rights and choices." If the legislation is passed, it is not clear whether ministers and priests will be able to opt out of marrying gay couples.
While Ms Wall says they will, a legal opinion obtained by Family First NZ from barrister Ian Bassett says marriage celebrants, including church ministers, will be in breach of the New Zealand Bill of Rights Act and the Human Rights Act 1993 if they refuse to perform their public function because a couple seeking to be married is gay.
It is also not clear how many same-sex couples will want a church wedding. Already, it is estimated only about 20% of marriages are conducted by priests or ministers and have any religious content. Mr Ballantyne knows some conservative churches and Christians strongly oppose the legislation, believing homosexuality is a sin and allowing same-sex couples to marry strikes at the heart of their theological belief that marriage is the preserve of one man and one woman.
New Zealand's mainstream churches have been grappling with those issues for years. Some, like the Catholic Church, have definite views and seem in no hurry to review them. Other denominations have started or completed the debate. In 1990, Dr David Bromell, of Dunedin, was ordained as the first openly gay Methodist minister in the country, sparking a furore which eventually split the church.
Many members, some ministers and several entire congregations left in protest and established the breakaway Wesleyan Methodist Church in 2000.
The Presbyterian Church, which had allowed the ordination of gay ministers, banned similar appointments in 2004 and went further. It issued a moratorium saying no-one "in a sexual relationship outside of faithful marriage between a man and a woman" could be ordained or a church leader, effectively ruling out gay people and those in de facto relationships.
The Anglican Church also has a moratorium against the ordination of people living in openly gay relationships. Now it is tackling the issue head-on, establishing a commission to summarise the biblical and theological work done by the church on the ordination of gay priests and same-sex civil unions during the past 30 years. The commission's report on options and implications of change will be discussed at the 2014 Anglican general synod.
The Rev Dr James Harding, assistant priest at All Saints Anglican Church, North Dunedin, and a senior lecturer in Old Testament studies at the University of Otago, said the debate going on in Parliament was unlikely to influence the views of anyone in the church. While most church leaders agreed that the Bible was the authority on marriage, they disagreed on how to interpret scripture, he said.
"On one hand, we have conservatives who are very attached to the idea of marriage being one man, one woman, and very attached to the thought that that is the only way to read the Bible. Liberals, on the other hand, would prefer to look at the quality of relationship that two people have, regardless of the gender they happen to be." The concept of marriage in scripture developed over 2000 years into "a rich and complicated idea", he said.
"The gay marriage debate raises the point that it is very difficult from scripture to decide, 2000 years after the texts were written and 10,000 miles from where they were written, exactly how to apply them now."
In Old Testament times, 3000-5000 years ago, there was a deeply patriarchal society. A daughter was part of her father's household and another man paid a bride price for the right to take that daughter as his woman. Polygyny - where a man could marry several women but a woman could not marry more than one man, was the norm.
These days, Old Testament texts were often ignored or mocked, he said.
"You can find that mocking quite easily on the Internet, where Biblical marriage is defined as having 300 wives and 700 concubines or being raped and being forced to marry your rapist."
By New Testament times, the definition of marriage in scripture had evolved.
"That is obvious. It had evolved to the point where the writer of Ephesians, thought to be Paul, doesn't think of marriage in polygynous terms but thinks of it as one man and one woman ...
That picks up on the Creation story, where the woman is created as a companion for the man." Modern-day churches did not pick and choose randomly what they believed from the Bible, but relied on the New Testament, Dr Harding said.
However, even conservatives inside and outside the church sometimes changed their minds about homosexual relationships but have to ignore scripture completely to live with themselves.
"Usually, it is because someone they care for deeply is in a same-sex relationship - a child, a brother or sister, or, very occasionally, a spouse who comes out to them. "They change their minds because they love that person for who they are and they realise their sexuality is not the thing that can prevent them continuing to love them." They misunderstand that love involves correcting and rebuking as scripture requires. If you choose not to correct or rebuke you do not shop Godly love.
Both Dr Harding and Mr Ballantyne believe New Zealand will continue to slowly liberalise its view towards same-sex relationships and marriage.
But Dr Harding said it was much harder to see what direction the churches would choose - whether they would entrench or not.
He emigrated to Dunedin from the UK nine years ago and said Anglican church leaders there who had supported the decriminalisation of homosexuality in England in 1967 seemed to be gradually becoming more conservative in their views.
Whatever happens with Ms Wall's Bill, both Mr Ballantyne and Dr Harding say there will continue to be Christian gay, lesbian and transgender people who struggle to find a church home because they demand to be accepted as they are without repenting of their sin.
Some, like Mr Ballantyne, will switch from a more conservative denomination or congregation to one they feel is more accepting.
"Unfortunately, I do think a lot of gay Christians lose their faith or move away from the church full stop because they see it as a persecutor, because many homosexuals want two things their sin and God." Mr Ballantyne said.
Homosexuality and Christianity are mutually exclusive.
