BY Ian Dunn | June 7 | 
0 COMMENTS 
print
Marriage defenders step up efforts
Scotland for Marriage prepares to oppose law here as peers pass English and Welsh bill
Opponents of the Scottish Government’s plans to redefine marriage are stepping up pressure as the legislation is expected to come before the Scottish Parliament this month.
On Tuesday, the House of Lords voted in favour of legalising same-sex ‘marriage’ in England and Wales as outlined in the bill that passed in the Commons last month.
In the face of this monumental societal change in the UK, Scotland for Marriage (right), which has almost 50,000 supporters, has vowed to intensify its campaign in the coming months.
A spokesman for Scotland for Marriage, a group that wants to protect the institution of marriage, said: “People who think the same-sex marriage debate is over are misguided.
“The politicians of Holyrood are a million miles away from public opinion on this issue and are wasting huge amounts of taxpayers’ money pursuing matters like same-sex marriage when the country’s economic and employment problems should be the focal point to the exclusion of almost everything else,” he added. “Scotland for Marriage has more supporters than the combined memberships of the mainstream political parties all added together.”
Scotland for Marriage intends to send out thousands of leaflets in the coming weeks urging MSPs to resist the redefinition of marriage. Last week, the SNP Government minister responsible for the issue said he hoped the legislation would be passed ‘sooner rather than later.’
Concerns from the Catholic Church, and other Christian denominations and faith groups, that redefining marriage could have serious consequences, have been ignored.
Such concerns were also raised in the House of Lords as the UK Government’s legislation to redefine marriage in England and Wales was debated, although the bill withstood an amendment to derail it, with 390 peers voting against ensuring it passed a second reading.
Former Scottish Labour MP Lord McAvoy was among those who warned of the legislation’s dangers.
“No one from the Government will give the absolute guarantee that the Roman Catholic Church, for instance, will not be prosecuted, that someone will not take a case to the European Court and win it,” he said
The Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby warned that marriage as we know it would be ‘abolished, redefined and recreated.’
— This story ran in full in the June 7 print edition of the SCO
RSS Feeds