Arthur D. Hlavaty

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.