Sunday 2 June 2013

Religious Leader is Homophobic Bigot

Something of a Dog-Bites-Man title, I know.  But this time, the religion is the fuzzy, liberal Church of England.
Same-sex marriage sets a "dangerous precedent" which could lead to sibling marriage or polygamy, says Lord Carey.
Ahead of the Lords debate on the bill next week, the former archbishop of Canterbury argued there could be "unintended consequences".
He has previously courted controversy by likening critics of gay marriage to persecuted Jews in Nazi Germany.
As you can see, strictly speaking Carey is not a religious leader any more, having ended his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury eleven years ago.  Though I'm pretty sure the only reason he gets to sit in the House of Lords is because of his religious role.  I also note the casual way that polyamorous1 relationships are automatically seen as wrong2.

The most bizarre thing to me is that many of his comments seem quite reasonable, divorced of his opposition:
In an article for the think tank Civitas, Lord Carey, who is a member of the House of Lords, argues that the government is effectively seeking to change the definition of marriage to "a long-term commitment between two people of any sex, in which gender and procreation are irrelevant".
To which I say: good.
"Ultimately, the proposed legalisation of same-sex marriage represents a paradigm shift in our understanding of marriage," he argues.
Again, equality has always demanded paradigm shifts as the old bigotries and prejudices are overturned in place of the radical idea of treating all people as people.


1 Assumed to be polygamy and not polyandry, of course. 
2 The issue of incest is one I am conflicted about, so I'm passing that comment here.

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