More consequences of same-sex marriage immediately harming religious institutions:
Family First New Zealand has received notification that government's Charities Commission intends to deregister the charity. Why? Family First has a traditional view of marriage being one man and one woman. The commission's investigation began just after NZ’s gay marriage debate started last year.
The decision means that the organisation will no longer be exempt from income tax and, more importantly for a non-profit, donations to it will no longer be tax-deductible.
“This is a highly politicised decision which is grim evidence that groups that think differently to the prevailing politically correct view will be targeted in an attempt to shut them up,” says Bob McCoskrie, National Director of Family First NZ. (MercatorNet)
News from a few weeks ago but a good reminder that attitudes about marriage change over time in both directions:
At last New Zealand's leading newspaper has acknowledged that support for gay marriage has declined ever since a bill to legalise it was introduced six months ago. TheNZ Herald's front page headline today reads, "Gay marriage shock" and the summary beneath it: "Religious sacremongering blamed for surprise increase in Kiwi's opposition to law change". Of course there had to be a sinister reason for Kiwis coming to their senses.
The fact remains that barely half the country supports same-sex marriage legislation which is already two-thirds of its way through Parliament. Asked in a Herald-DigiPoll "Which of the following best fits your view about marriage law? -- It should remain only between a man and a woman. OR It should be changed to allow it to be between same sex couples." -- 48 percent chose the first option and 49.6 percent the second. That's a rise of 7.5 percentage points against gay marriage from a poll last June and a decline of 4 points for it. Those who opted for "Don't know" or refused to answer declined from 6 per cent to 2.4 percent. The uncertain are making up their minds. (MercatorNet)
January 7, 2013 – 10:30 am
Via the new MercatorNet blog on the future of marriage Conjugality:
The following press release provides an update on the same-sex marriage issue in New Zealand, where a bill redefining marriage to include such unions is due for a second reading on March 20:
Family First NZ and the ‘Protect Marriage’ campaign is welcoming a Herald on Sunday poll today showing that support for redefining marriage has fallen from a previous high of 63% in a ONE News Colmar Brunton poll last May to just 53% now.
This echoes a similar slide in polling by Research NZ which showed support for ‘same-sex marriage’ dropping to less than 50%, down 11% from a similar poll in 2011...
September 27, 2012 – 11:30 am
Gay marriage advocates in Australia had argued that Tasmania's impending legalization of gay marriage should influence Australia's deliberations.
The national convener of Australian Marriage Equality, Alex Greenwich, for instance, said that the vote in the lower Tasmania meant that the move towards redefining marriage equality in Tasmania was ”unstoppable”.
But as we know, nothing in the marriage fight is inevitable.
Now both Australia and Tasmania have defeated gay marriage:
Gay marriage advocates have vowed to keep campaigning as numbers mount against them in the first attempt at pioneering state-based same sex marriage.
The numbers for reform in Tasmania were lost tonight when the eighth voice against the bill was declared in the 15 member state upper house, the Legislative Council.
... Already struggling for numbers in the council, the Same Sex Marriage bill fell after key undeclared MPs raised constitutional doubts. -- Sydney Morning Herald
September 20, 2012 – 2:00 pm
The Australian:
THE Senate has followed the lower house in rejecting same-sex marriage laws, as Opposition Leader Tony Abbott talked down the prospect of federal laws for gay civil unions.
With the House of Representatives rejecting Labor MP Stephen Jones' bill 98-42 on Wednesday, the Senate rejected a similar bill from Labor senator Trish Crossin 26-41 on Thursday afternoon.
Mr Abbott said the defeat in the Senate settles the matter at least for the life of the current federal parliament.
The next federal election will not be held until 2013.
September 19, 2012 – 10:30 am
After months and months of pressure the bill was actually brought to a vote ... and was promptly defeated overwhelmingly in the Australian House of Representatives:
The House of Representatives has overwhelmingly voted against legislation that would have allowed same-sex couples to marry.
Just 42 MPs supported the private members bill put forward by Labor backbencher Stephen Jones, while 98 MP voted against.
... Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her deputy Wayne Swan voted against the legislation, while many of their Cabinet colleagues voted in support of the change.
... There are three other bills currently before Parliament that would have the same effect as Mr Jones's bill. It is unclear at this stage when they will be brought on for a vote. -- ABC News
September 17, 2012 – 10:00 am
This is the address given by the president of the National Civic Council, Peter Westmore, to the Australian National Marriage Day Rally outside federal parliament last month:
"...We often hear media commentators say that the push for same-sex marriage is inevitable. If we listen only to the chattering classes, we could believe this to be true.
But in fact, it is not true. There were over 200 countries competing in the Olympic Games, but same-sex marriage is performed in only 11 countries, most of which are in Western Europe, and in a small minority of states of the USA.
In other words, same-sex marriages are not performed in over 190 countries, including Australia, which cover around 95 per cent of the world’s population. We are in the majority.
Nor is this a religious issue. There is not one country in Asia which has adopted same-sex marriage; yet in general, they are not Christian, and their cultures go back thousands of years. Moreover, they are also more technologically advanced than we are. There is not one country in the Islamic world, there is only one in the whole of the African continent and one in South America where same-sex marriages are performed and recognised." -- NewsWeekly
Brendan O'Neill's always-provocative take on what is really driving the war on marriage:
"If you stop to think about it, you will notice that nothing in the gay-marriage debate makes sense. The struggle for ‘marriage equality’ is presented to us as a good, natural, straightforward civil-rights thing, which only cranky men of the cloth could feel riled by. But just a couple of minutes’ thoughtful consideration should reveal that it is in fact the most surreal campaign of our age, whose ascendancy to the top of the political agenda in Australia, Britain and the US defies both logic and reason."
... In a nutshell, then, the ‘gay marriage rights’ juggernaut is a campaign for something that gays traditionally haven’t been interested in, backed by people who don’t care very much for either marriage or rights. What’s really going on here? I propose that the only way we can properly understand the speedy rise of this bizarre issue, and its embrace by everyone from a cross-parliamentary inquiry in Australia to Barack Obama to Goldman Sachs (seriously), is as an act of high and unprecedented political opportunism. The real value of the gay-marriage issue is not in the improvements it will allegedly make to homosexual people’s lives, but rather in the opportunity for moral posturing and right-on preening it affords to its backers. Gay marriage isn’t a real issue; it’s a cultural signifier, where you support it in order to show that you are decent, enlightened and, most importantly, not like Them, the rabble.
In an era when old-style morality is on the wane, if not dead, the elites are forever feeling around for new issues through which they can communicate their moral superiority. And right now, banging on about gay marriage is the main way they do this. -- The Australian Spectator
Doubling-down:
The Australian arm of the Seattle-based coffee giant Starbucks on Tuesday endorsed gay marriage.
“Core to who we are and what we value as a company is our belief in equal treatment of our partners [employees] and our customers,” the company said in a statement.
“It is with this in mind that Starbucks Australia would like to publicly announce our proud support of marriage equality for all.”
“Many of our stores and partners are actively participating in events and activities aimed at changing local legislation – together we can make a difference.”
The endorsement comes after gay marriage opponent the National Organization for Marriage (NOM) launched a boycott against Starbucks over its support for a gay marriage law in Washington state. As of Wednesday, 44,329 people had pledged at the group's boycott site to “dump Starbucks.” -- OnTopMag
If you live in Australia or have friends who do -- now is the time to take the pledge at www.DumpStarbucks.com!
