Gay Rights or Religious Rights?
Rev Hon Dr Gordon Moyes has condemned efforts to institute same-sex marriage in Australia as “a social movement that is on a collision course with basic religious rights and freedoms.”
“Like it or not, the questions surrounding same-sex ‘marriage’ and special rights for homosexuals are going to force us to deal with religious freedom issues—even what we can preach about from the pulpit,” Dr Moyes said.
Dr Moyes said that in the US, jurisdictions that adopted a pro-homosexual agenda were conversely eroding religious freedoms. “Religious institutions and charities were losing their freedoms to proscriptive laws that required affirmation of homosexuality,” Dr Moyes said.
“Re-writing the definition of ‘marriage’ does not just change one law, it changes everything,” Dr Moyes said. “The legal term ‘marriage’ permeates every sphere of law: taxes, education, and employment. These laws in turn regulate religious institutions and para-church organisations like schools, hospitals, child-care facilities, disability services, aged care facilities, nursing homes and so on.”
Dr Moyes said the pro-homosexual movement was being used by some Australian politicians as a diversion. “I suspect the ACT Government is using this [same-sex ‘marriage’] to create a smoke screen to cover their appalling financial mismanagement which has led to the closure of an incredible thirty-two schools, and desperate situations in Canberra’s hospitals,” Dr Moyes said.
Going into a double election year Dr Moyes called on voters to enquire where their political candidates stood on the issue of pro-homosexual rights.
Read the full article But Is It the Same? .
