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Showing posts with the label Natural and legal rights

Traditional Marriage and Dissent

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“The Two Shall Become One Flesh” , the most recent statement from Evangelicals and Catholics Together , seeks to explain what marriage is and why it matters for the church and for society today. The Evangelicals and Catholics Together initiative has been controversial through the years. Because these signers do not represent all evangelicals or all Catholics , some have dismissed the relevance of these statements, while others have warned of ecumenical compromise, whether evangelicals diminishing the importance of sola Scriptura and justification by faith, or Catholics diluting their church-centered, sacramental view of salvation. For the purposes of this blog, I want to bypass the ongoing debate about ECT and comment on their newest statement on marriage. I’ve already seen several sensational news headlines about this statement (“evangelicals and Catholics unite to condemn gay marriage as worse than divorce,” etc) that miss both the tone and the substance of what Christians over ...

Do kids have the right to a Mum and a Dad?

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This month will see some of the first gay marriage ceremonies in the UK , signalling the belief in many people's mind that the gay marriage debate is over and that those in favour have won out. But American Professor Robert Lopez , founder of the International Children's Rights Institute, believes that a new debate is now just beginning, over the rights and wrongs of gay and lesbian couples adopting children to raise as their own. Christian Concern quoted him as saying: "There is no 'right to a child' or 'right to be a parent' or 'right to adopt', but a child has a natural born right to a mum and dad." He has a particular investment in this issue, having been raised by two women in a lesbian relationship, and he has come to the UK to make his case. Christian Today spoke to him about his beliefs and why he holds them. CT: Why do you feel the need to go as far as to call it a "right" to have a mother and a father figure? RL: It is a ...

Bishop Thomas Tobin: Civil unions ‘just another name for what would be same-sex marriage’

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Image via Wikipedia Civil unions, said Bishop Tobin in a recent interview, are “just another name for what would be same-sex marriage.” “We’ve found invariably whenever civil unions are introduced in a state that is quickly followed by full-fledged gay marriage ,” he  told GoLocalProv in the exclusive interview. Legalizing homosexual “marriage,” the outspoken Providence bishop said, “is an ill-advised attempt to redefine the very basic parameters of marriage” as “one man and one woman … as they’ve existed from the very beginning of mankind.”  True marriage, he said, is “designed to create new life and to encourage the love of the spouses.” Bishop Tobin has been quick to oppose the efforts of legislators in Rhode Island who try to push a homosexual “marriage” agenda.  In January, he  blasted  Governor Lincoln Chafee for his support for gay “marriage.”  Tobin said he had personally contacted ten to twelve lawmakers to express concern and to challenge...