Marriage Equality Still too Equal for Some...

... in England and Wales

With the Royal Assent coming very quickly on the heels of action in the Lords and Commons, marriage equality is a reality (on the statute books if not in the registrars’ offices; getting all the forms printed and revised will take some time, as no doubt the Sir Humphrey Applebys of the Civil Service are engaged in their usual careful and studious work. Sad to say that Nigel Hawthorne did not live to see this day.)

Thinking Anglicans reports that not all are pleased with the new law. Some anxious Christian groups are bemoaning what they see to be undue haste in the six months of debate and discussion that led to this Act. Perhaps they would feel more at home with our Congress, if not our Supreme Court.

Meanwhile, the Roman Bishops in the affected areas of Great Britain have said, “With this new legislation, marriage has now become an institution in which openness to children, and with it the responsibility on fathers and mothers to remain together to care for children born into their family unit, are no longer central.”

Perhaps I missed the relevant clause of the Act (as it now is) that diminishes "openness to children" for those for whom such "openness" is possible, or the statute that allows for irresponsibility for the care of children born to them. I am not sure what the bishops mean by “central,” but where possible, childbirth is still possible, and the responsibility for the consequences of childbirth appear to be completely unaltered.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG

Changed Perspective

The House of Lords, after a long and tedious debate, and a long call for Division in a spectacularly inefficient manner, has soundly defeated the Dear motion to scuttle the Marriage Bill, and then voted handily to move it along to committee.

As I listened to the debate, I imagined how an earlier one might have sounded.

My Lords, the geocentric model for the universe has served us well for centuries. Not only is it hallowed by Tradition and the evidence of Holy Writ, it has the unsurpassed virtue of being obvious to the feeblest of minds, as plain as the sun rising in the east and setting in the west. To introduce, without adequate review or any real evidence apart from the theorizing of a very few foreign natural philosophers, a whole new definition of the very structure of the universe is a step too far. Anyone can see that everything by nature falls down, towards the center of the earth, a firm foundation beneath our feet; this novel notion to the contrary introduces all sorts of instability and doubt about the nature of how things work. The geocentric model is the foundation of our whole civilization; it is what holds us together. If it is challenged or redefined we may find ourselves floating off in any number of unhelpful and dangerous directions. What other institutions will be redefined next? The monarchy? The foundations of our foundations are at risk. I earnestly entreat you not to support this misguided and ill-conceived effort to wrest our Mother Earth from her place of honor at the center of our cosmos, and indeed, our hearts.

Marriage, like the cosmos, is what it is. Our understanding of it may change — some who have been denied access to participation in it may be and have been admitted to its rights and responsibilities; its form and definition may be altered, as it has been altered time and again. We will not go floating off into space on that account. Changing our perspective does not change the underlying reality of the world, or of human life. New opportunities teach new duties. And all will be well.

Tobias Stanislas Haller BSG