INTERFAITH COALITION INTERVENES IN ONTARIO HOMOSEXUAL ‘MARRIAGE’ APPEAL

TORONTO, April 22, 2003 (LifeSiteNews.com) – An interfaith coalition of Roman Catholics, Evangelical Protestant Christians, Muslims and Sikhs is intervening in the case of Halpern v. Canada in the Ontario Court of Appeal, being heard April 22-25 in Toronto.  This case is an appeal of an Ontario Divisional Court ruling that constitutional protection of sexual orientation requires the redefinition of a fundamental institution such as marriage. The coalition argues that across all religions and cultures in Canada and worldwide, marriage is understood as being between a man and a woman   Bruce Clemenger, president-elect of the Evangelical Fellowship of Canada (EFC) – one of the interveners – said “Marriage as the exclusive and permanent sexual bonding of one man and one woman provides a stable and caring environment for the expression of the physical and psychological bond between male and female, and the practical ideal that does not intentionally forfeit the child’s right to grow up being nurtured by both parents.”  Clemenger, who is currently the director of the EFC’s Centre for Faith and Public Life warned that “The redefinition of marriage will reduce it to a commitment between two people, and there are many relationships in society which would meet the new definition. Marriage will loose its distinctiveness.”  See the interfaith coalition factum from the EFC website at:  https://www.evangelicalfellowship.ca/resources/resource_viewer.asp?Resource_ID=149