In ruling on same-sex marriage, the European Court of Human Rights warns that churches could lose some of their religious freedom.<\/p>\n
First, the ruling.<\/a><\/p>\n Same-sex marriages are not a human right, European judges have ruled.<\/p>\n Their decision shreds the claim by ministers that gay marriage is a universal human right and that same-sex couples have a right to marry because their mutual commitment is just as strong as that of husbands and wives.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n But it goes on.<\/p>\n The ruling also says that if gay couples are allowed to marry, any church that offers weddings will be guilty of discrimination if it declines to marry same-sex couples. <\/p>\n It means that if MPs legislate for same-sex marriage, the Coalition\u2019s promise that churches will not be compelled to conduct the weddings will be worthless.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n It always has been worthless, possibly na\u00efve, if not disingenuous. If, today (actually 4 years ago), a photographer can be sued for turning down business from a same-sex wedding<\/a> and lose<\/a>, it’s no small step for government to compel churches to do what goes against the church’s beliefs. And the EU court has let us all know this in advance.<\/p>\n Keep that in mind when you hear promises to the contrary. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In ruling on same-sex marriage, the European Court of Human Rights warns that churches could lose some of their religious freedom. First, the ruling. Same-sex marriages are not a human right, European judges have ruled. Their decision shreds the claim by ministers that gay marriage is a universal human right and that same-sex couples have […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,47,245],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-doug","category-homosexuality","category-marriage"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n
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