Defending Marriage

Here is an Australian Christian Lobby Report on Marriage:

It's been an historic week for marriage in Australia. Under pressure from the office of Prime Minister Kevin Rudd, the ACT's Stanhope Government was forced last Sunday to back down from its intention to introduce a form of homosexual marriage called civil partnerships. The climb-down was completed last night with the ACT Legislative Assembly dropping marriage-mimicking ceremonies and celebrants from its law recognising relationships between same sex couples.

According to reports today, the ACT law is similar to the Tasmanian and Victorian relationship register laws, which do not mimic marriage. Before the last election, Mr Rudd promised the Christian constituency he would not allow the federal marriage law to be tampered with, but would seek to address issues of discrimination against same sex couples through nationally consistent State-based relationship registers, based on the Tasmanian model. This model allows interdependent relationships, be they sexual or otherwise, to be recognised in State law for purposes of finance and property sharing.

As reported earlier this week, ACL is grateful to Mr Rudd and his Attorney General Robert Mclelland for honouring this commitment under enormous political pressure from homosexual activists and elements of the media. It's not too late to thank them. Mr Rudd can be contacted by clicking here and Mr McLelland's e-mail address is R.McClelland.MP@aph.gov.au

ACL is also grateful to the Federal Coalition and Opposition Leader Brendan Nelson who was also vocal in backing traditional marriage. There has been significant debate in the media about the value of marriage in our society, with one of the best contributions coming from the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney, Dr Peter Jensen. His article here is well worth reading.

GP