8 August 2012

Labour Call to Withdraw Marriage Bill Welcomed

Family First is welcoming calls from Labour Party's Pacific Island Affairs spokesperson, Su'a William Sio, calling for the withdrawal of the same-sex marriage bill.

"Mr Sio is quite correct when he says that it is the wrong bill at the wrong time, cuts deep into fundamental beliefs, and will divide the community. Mr Sio agrees with our assertion that same-sex couples already have legal recognition and rights, and that there are far more urgent matters such as child abuse, unemployment, welfare dependency, and family poverty that should be the priority of valuable parliamentary time," says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ.

"Louisa Wall is trying to argue that faith-based organizations and churches won't be affected by the bill, but international experience shows that those are shallow promises."

A Canadian Court has ruled that marriage officials must marry homosexuals; in the US, the army is threatening to court-martial Chaplains for ‘religious, conscience’ objection to homosexuality; in the UK, a Christian marriage conference in UK was banned for their opposition to gay marriage; a UK Tory MP has called for churches to be banned from holding marriages if they refuse gay couples; Dutch MPs voted for a change in the law to prevent civil servants refusing to conduct gay marriages; gay rights activists called for the boycott of the Salvation Army Christmas fundraiser; a New Jersey judge ruled against a Christian retreat house that refused to allow a same-sex civil union ceremony to be conducted on its premises, ruling the Constitution allows ‘some intrusion into religious freedom to balance other important societal goals’; and anyone challenging the homosexualist agenda in public in Sweden can be sent to prison, and the European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has ruled that this does not constitute any violation of rights; a proposed Kansas law would force churches to host same-sex ‘weddings,’ receptions; and the government of Wales is moving against Catholic schools that are organizing students to protest a new government plan to back gay marriage in that country - and there are many more examples.

"Mr Sio's concerns are very real and the Labour party should tell Louisa Wall to withdraw her bill," says Mr McCoskrie.

ENDS

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