The Sturch* strikes again

[supergee]

In a horrible example of what happens when you don't have separation of church & state, the British government has denied religious freedom to many believers and their clergy.
*Thank you, Philip Jose Farmer

Thanx to andrewducker

Comments

[matgb]

Nah, the religious freedom would be to leave the antiquated dinosaur. The Church wants a clear exemption, and because of its status, has to have one in statute. If it ever wants to change it then it'll change.

The only way they can write a law that allows churches to opt in or out is to write a law that gives the CofE special status because of, well, status. That they're letting other churches choose to do it is a massive step forward and still might get blocked because of, well, stupid.

(I actually had to do a module on the staus of the CofE as part of my degree, well, I chose to, it counts as constitutional law-the DPM is on record as wanting to disestablish, but we only got 24% of the vote...)

Here via friends of friends

[legionseagle]

For clarity, it's worth noting that the people currently whimpering that their religious freedom is being horribly oppressed are the very same people who six months ago filed a position paper that explicitly stated that because of the constitutionally unique position of the Church of England (and the different but related position of the Church in Wales - the Scottish aren't an issue here) there was no difference between civil and religious marriage and that, accordingly, no same-sex marriage could be permitted to anyone in England and Wales because this would inevitably lead to the CofE being forced to perform such ceremonies against their religious convictions (I did a long post with links here which sets out both the CofE's arguments and why they seem to be both disingenuous and legally wrong).

They don't like the current measures because they recognise the special position of the CofE which the CofE themselves insisted on, but don't go on to reach the conclusion the CofE position paper argued for, namely a blanket ban on gay marriage for everyone in England and Wales, irrespective of those individuals' faith.

I am unsurprised given the level of dishonesty around the original submission that this is being spun as an issue of denial of religious freedom (for what it's worth I think it's yet another strong argument in favour of the disestablishment of the Church of England and the completion of those aspects of the disestablishment of the Church in Wales which seem to have been left over since 1911) but I am disappointed about the number of people who seem to be falling for it.