Friday, May 31, 2013

Quote of the Day: Kevin Rudd

Former Prime Minister of Australia evolves, and now supports marriage equality.  And places this firmly in the context of religious freedom.  (My emphasis)
[U]nder no circumstances should marriage equality legislation place any legal requirement on the church or other religious institutions to conduct same sex marriages. The churches should be explicitly exempt. If we truly believe in a separation of church and state, then the church must be absolutely free to conduct marriage ceremonies between a man and a woman only, given the nature of their current established theological and doctrinal positions on the matter. This should be exclusively a matter for the church, the mosque and the synagogue. It is, however, a different matter for a secular state. The Church must be free to perform marriages for Christian heterosexual couples without any threat of interference from the state. Just as the state should be free to perform marriage services for both heterosexual and same sex couples, and whether these couples are of a religious faith or no religious faith.

2 comments:

dr.primrose said...

Story on NBCNews.com about a study that contravenes "the conventional wisdom is that gay people in America have tons of money and fewer economic struggles than the rest of the population."

"[T]he report finds a sexual orientation 'poverty gap': LGBT Americans are more likely to be poor than heterosexuals, with African-Americans and women particularly vulnerable."

You can read the full story here.

Chelliah Laity said...

Is the 'Pink Dollar' a myth I wonder?