Aries54,

I'm not suggesting anyone do anything. As I said: I reported on something written by a person whose opinions and knowledge I respect. You are clearly not interested in commenting on what he said.

Your article is clearly titled "Bishops should read the bible". I'm responding to that. And no, I don't give a flying fig what some aristocrat of the church has to say about anything, such is the loss of credibility the church has earned.

Hi Aries,

I remember the times when as a Catholic you weren't
allowed to associate with non-Catholics, go into
other churches, and you got caned if you didn't
quote the Catechism exactly as written. Going by the
book? Hardly! Hatred was preached from
the pulpit about non-Catholics never going to heaven.
Purgatory was reserved for them until they converted.

It was all about control. Not so much about practicing
what Christ taught. Hence, many leaving and looking for
answers elsewhere is a sad reflection of why church
attendance is not what is once was.

Before the Churches can condemn others the lives of others
it needs to clean up its own institutions and practices.
It needs to lead by active example and not just words.
Rigid social exclusion based on gender, sexual orientation,
and actions like sexual abuse need to be fixed. Empty
words don't produce good results. Actions matter.

To the best of my knowledge there is no biblical text that deals with specifically with the idea of marriage. No doubt those who are concerned about SSM will have at their fingertips the texts that deal with the nature of marriage.

I'm not a theologian so I'm not equipped to argue the
Bible with Mr Peter Smith and the context in which it was
written.

However from my general understanding of Christ's
teachings it seems to me that someone who preached love
and acceptance instead of hate would want the religious
institutions built in his name to practice what
he preached and would find it difficult
to understand (and unfair) - for the institutions to
provide different services and benefits to heterosexual
couples than they provide to gay and lesbian couples.

I would have thought that churches should be accepting of
people who want God in their lives without regard to their
sexual orientation. Sexual orientation is after all a
private matter and the church should stay out of it.
Unless of course the sexual orientation does harm to others -
but that's a different issue.

But adults who want to marry and be in
a stable relationship should not be excluded and condemned simple
because they love someone of the same sex.

Aries54

No surprise there. You are just grabbing an opportunity for an anti-Christian rant. Fine, if you feel the need.