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Like so many Roman Catholic voters, parliamentarians, legislators and governors have done around the world, Britain’s Roman Catholic Members of Parliament voted overwhelmingly last week in support of the UK Equal Marriage bill.
“Among the Catholic MPs who cast ballots in the landmark February [5] vote, 47 favored the government’s proposal, and only 28 opposed it,” CatholicCulture.org reports.
This solid vote of support by Catholic MPs happened despite opposition from the hierarchy so strenuous that the Catholic Church in England and Wales dedicated their main webpage (until Pope Benedict’s unexpected resignation) and significant resources to the campaign against the bill.
Before the vote, Catholic Labour MP Michael Dugher wrote that “I will be voting for equal marriage because of my Catholic upbringing, not in spite of it”.
On learning that I am in favour of same-sex marriage, one of my local Catholic priests wrote to me recently saying that he would pray for me. Another local priest expressed his disappointment in me by adding that he had hoped that my Catholic background “would have prompted a more thoughtful response and decision”.
As someone who still regards themselves as a Catholic, whose children are being educated at Catholic school, I have no objection to being prayed for. Indeed I welcome it. We all need praying for. But I thought the suggestion that my support for equal marriage was somehow contradictory to my Catholic upbringing was rather odd. …
I was always told that Jesus taught us compassion, understanding and to treat others as we wished to be treated ourselves. I am married – so why shouldn’t two gay people similarly be allowed to get married? At weddings, we often quote from St Paul’s famous first letter to the Corinthians where he told us to abide by three things: faith, hope and love, “but the greatest of these is love”. When the Commons votes today, I will be voting in favour of equal marriage because why shouldn’t two people, who love each other and who want to make a long-term commitment to one another, be able to get married, regardless of their sexuality? …
I am very proud of my Catholic upbringing. At my Catholic state school, growing up in South Yorkshire in the 1980s, I was given a strong set of values, such as a firm belief in tolerance, about having a compassion for all humanity, about rejecting all forms of bigotry and prejudice. So I will be voting for equal marriage at least in part because of my Catholic upbringing, not in spite of it.
Daniel Kawczynski MP, a Tory and a Catholic, explained his vote by saying:
Jesus says: “Therefore all things whatsoever would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them”.
Damian Collins MP, also a Catholic Tory, beautifully articulated the way in which seemingly contradictory religious and political views can be accommodated in a civil society:
I will be supporting the Same Sex Marriage Bill because I believe in a society where people have freedom of religious expression, but also one where outside of religion people are equal in the eyes of the law.
Read more on Terence Weldon’s Queering The Church blog.
Related:
* British House of Commons Overwhelmingly Approves Equal Marriage Bill
7 Comments
They just financially support the catholic church which doesn’t believe in marriage equality, thanks guys.
Do the words self defeating ring a bell?
Do you know this for a fact?
What does the “Equal Marriage Bill” say?
What will the practical difference be as opposed to what was in effect before?
In the USA a few States have passed same sex marriage already,
What do these laws say? and what practical difference do they make?
I’m just wondering because I know several heterosexual couples who just live together, because they say they lose rights by getting married. . . Tax laws, real estate assets, and inheritance laws for their children from previous marriages become very complicated.
Thanks for asking, tellmewhy. The UK equal marriage bill would allow same-sex couples in England and Wales to get a civil marriage. For the particulars, you can read the text of the bill and follow its progress here.
The marriage bills passed in the various US states have all said essentially the same thing: same-sex couples can get a civil marriage.
The practical difference a marriage makes over other relationships is a) everyone know what it is (unlike a civil union, for example), b) it is portable across state lines (civil unions usually aren’t) and c) it’s the only legal relationship that the federal government recognizes. This last point is extremely important since you can’t claim federal benefits for your partner unless they are your married spouse. Civil union spouses, etc don’t count. Federal benefits like filing joint tax returns, being able to receive survivor benefits, being able to sponsor your spouse for citizenship, etc. are only available to married spouses.
I can’t comment on your friends, not knowing the details.
The OT says very, very little about homosexuality.
It says says a lot about generosity, yet we allow stingy people to marry.
In the New Testament, Jesus said nothing about homosexuality. He said a lot about not judging others, though.
Standing behind the Bible to shun and persecute gay people is, candidly, total hypocritical bs.
And I think half the supreme court’s catholic justices will vote with us on doma and prop 8: Kennedy, Sotomayor and Roberts. Optimistic, but I’ve got a good feeling about that.
Of course the other catholics–Scalia, Alito and Uncle Thomas–are fervently against us.
They don’t get state funding, Laurel. But they do get a lot of funding for Catholic schools–the same is true in Britain for other religious, such as Islam and various forms of protestantism. So there is a problem there regarding taxpayer dollars going to fund religious teaching that stigmatizes gay people.