Archbishop of York, John Sentamu is now claiming that [url=http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/church-approval-needed-for-gay-marriage-says-archbishop-of-york-7561456.htmlParliament would require permission from the Church of England[/url to legalise gay marriages.

Has he no concept at all of how the legislature works in this country?

Would require?

I quote from the article...

"The Archbishop of York has warned the Government it [size=200may[/size need approval from the Church of England’s legislative body if it decides to bring in gay marriages.

He also backs it up by saying "They have got a problem because the definition of marriage is in the 1662 Prayer Book and Article 30 of the Church of England, which are both Acts of Parliament.."

So what he's saying is that the government would need to CONSULT, not gain permission.

But as we have found out with the Government, they can consult and blindly ignore.

In either case, he's [size=200WRONG[/size an act of parliament can be brought onto the books that nullifies any previous act, there is absolutely no requirement to involve the General Synod or any other bunch of batsh[ii[/it, raving loonies

Loving the maturity, Rock God.

Good job he's not consulting you, then.

I mean, your views are no more or less valid than his, surely.

I'm sorry, I don't understand.

It's not about whose view is more valid, it's about how the legislative process works. That does not include having to ask the church for permission to introduce new legislation. New laws are enacted all the time that change or repeal all or part of a previous law. Why should gay marriage be any different?

I'm not the loon insisting I should be consulted, the sky-pixie follower is

I think he has every idea. He is trying to put pressure on the Tories. Will they really wish for legal wrangling or to overturn such venerable legislation, which goes to the very heart of the country's unwritten constitution? This issue has the potential to create great protest.

I attended a house party with our local MP a few days ago. I was surprised that one of the questions posed to him concerned "gay marriage" and the level of ill-feeling it was causing to a few people.

I hope it does cause great protest.

Its about time the homophobic in our society stepped out into the open and declared their beliefs.

It's a glorious distraction from watching the government try to murder the NHS, privatise the police and generally line the pockets of themselves and their mates.

This.

Don't forget privatising education.
It's the big 3 - health, education and police.

Fair point.

And everything that moves, frankly. Local government is hardly being left out of the equation – 'easy councils' etc. Slashed wages (but not for council bosses and executives, of course) etc etc.

You can't slash executive pay, or they'll all go and manage councils abroad.

~s~

Let them take to the streets holding banners proclaiming their intolerance for anybody's beliefs but their own. And let their pictures be taken under those banners.

That debate thingy on Sunday morning BBC with Nicky Campbell was funny yesterday. There was a devout christian nutter, an equally devout muslim barmpot and an orthodox jew all attempting to explain why their version of (presumably the same) heaven, was the only one that was valid.

The jew was the least phlegmatic, the muslim moderately so but the christian was insisting that the only way in to heaven was to convert to christianity and repent their sins. He did offer to pray for those that refused though, so that's everyone covered now then.

There was a general concensus among them that gayness was like an illness that could be cured through prayer. I wonder if the clergy could be cured of their kiddy-fiddling in the same way?

The Westboro people trade on their extreme opinions to the extent that suing people that retaliate against them is their primary source of income. The kind of people at parties Dally gets invited to think they're in the majority and PC is the only thing preventing anyone else from agreeing with them.

Interesting tweet yesterday from a catholic who was going to be read the latest pastoral letter and decided not to go to church to hear the prejudice. The tweet ended with

"Jesus said love another not discriminate against one another". Many "Christians" seem to have forgotten that, not just in this area.

I had a similar conversation with my mother - also a Daily Mail reader - the other night. The discussion had turned to gay adoption and she seemed to think that the [iprinciple[/i of homosexual couples being allowed to adopt was fine, but that no one could really be in favour of such a thing in practice.

Her: So, are you telling me that if you and your wife died, you'd be happy with a gay couple adopting your son?

Me (Ignoring the fact that if I was dead I wouldn't know one way or the other): Absolutely.

Her: No you wouldn't.

Me: Yes. I would.

Her: Well, I don't believe you.