Australia gay marriage debate highlights church divisions
As Australia prepares for a contentious postal vote on legalizing gay marriage, fierce divisions have emerged within the church, with many Christians disregarding traditional religious views as outdated. Although attitudes to same-sex marriage vary across denominations and congregations-and even between the pulpit and the pews-many Australians view the church as the greatest source of resistance to such unions.
“I think it is really bad news for the church that it is seen as taking this exclusive, judgmental, unloving stance toward a significant part of the Australian community,” Reverend Margaret Mayman, minister of the Pitt Street Uniting Church in Sydney, told AFP. “There is obviously a huge gap between the leadership of some denominations and the people in the pews,” she said.
A recent survey commissioned by equality advocates found two thirds of Catholics support gay marriage, as do 59 percent of Anglican, Uniting Church and Church of England followers. Ballots have been dispatched to some 15 million Australians, with the voluntary poll due kick off Tuesday and close on November 7, with the result out later that month. If most Australians say “yes”, the government will hold a parliamentary vote on the issue, but no action will be taken in the event of a “no” outcome.
Fear-mongering
Some of the country’s most senior Catholics have openly encouraged followers to vote against gay marriage. “The Catholic Church... teaches that marriage is a natural institution established by God to be a permanent union between one man and one woman, intended towards the formation of a family in which children are born and nurtured,” Melbourne Archbishop Denis Hart said in an open letter last month.
Sydney Archbishop Anthony Fisher warned that a move to legalize same-sex marriage would threaten the religious freedoms of teachers and doctors in Catholic institutions who would be forced to fall in line with views they did not hold. Other prominent figures have acknowledged a divide between the church and the public. “There is almost total unanimity amongst the young in favor of same-sex marriage, and arguments against it have almost no impact on them,” Father Chris Middleton, rector of one of Australia’s most prestigious Catholic schools, Xavier College, wrote recently to teachers, parents and students.
Outspoken Anglican minister Reverend Keith Mascord said arguments that gay marriage violated long-held doctrine or threatened religious freedoms were irrelevant. “The church has got a terrible, shameful legacy, which it’s adding to by fear-mongering and campaigning,” he said. On the opposing side, the Coalition of Marriage, backed by the Australian Christian Lobby, has become the face of the “no” drive.
Controversial advertisements from the group featuring mothers complaining about schools encouraging boys to wear dresses or about children being asked to role play same-sex unions have been branded offensive and scaremongering by gay rights advocates. —AFP