May 4, 2004, (LifeSiteNews.com) – Canada’s largest non-Catholic Christian denomination is arguing in favour of homosexual “marriage”. The United Church of Canada has issued a media release which says, “Christian morality and religious principles require that same-sex couples have access to the same marriage rights as opposite-sex couples.” Couching the argument in terms of “rights” creates common cause with homosexual activists who assert that there is no fundamental difference between homosexual partnerships and normal marriage.
The United Church is seeking intervenor status with the Supreme Court in the upcoming hearing on same sex “marriage” that is scheduled for October. The issue has become a thorny one for Christian groups since the passage of Bill C-250 that may make speaking out against the homosexual political agenda a criminal act. However, the United Church of Canada claims that the support of homosexual “marriage” is one that is compatible with Christian morality. Their press release says, “…in a debate that is too often characterized as pitting people of faith against each other or secular equality values, the Supreme Court needed to hear the perspective of a mainline Christian church that sees same-sex and opposite-sex couples as being equal in the eyes of God.”
In recent decades, the United Church has come more and more into line with mainstream secularism, and away from traditional Christian doctrines on a number of key moral issues such as abortion and homosexuality. Their “Statement of Belief” says that the United Church adheres to, “doctrinal standards and attempt to set them forth in continuity with the Biblical faith.”
Fr. Joseph Hattie told LifeSiteNews.com that the support of same sex unions as Christians is simply a contradiction. Fr. Hattie, a director of Priests for Life Canada, said that to assert that Christians can support same sex partnerships as equal before God, “is a total misleading of the public. If they’re reading their scriptures they will see that it’s not true. They are putting themselves in a position to contradict the scriptures.”
To read The United Church’s Press Release: https://www.united-church.ca/news/2004/0423.shtm