Christian Concern has lambasted Elton John's recent comments about same-sex marriage, labelling the singer's remarks "staggeringly arrogant".
Campaigns Director Andrew Marsh gave an interview to BBC Radio Wales in which he claimed Sir Elton's statement on homosexuality was "remarkably ignorant" and presumed "to dictate to Jesus Christ what he should think".
"The reality is he [Jesus] has spoken quite clearly on this subject," Marsh continued.
He was responding to Sir Elton's assertion that: "If Jesus Christ was alive today I cannot see him as the Christian person that he was and the great person that he was, saying this [same-sex marriage] could not happen. He was all about love and compassion and forgiveness and trying to bring people together and that's what the church should be about."
Marsh disagreed, however, insisting that Jesus "went out of his way to underline that marriage is between a man and a woman, as God had intended".
"And the reason that he did that, as the most compassionate person that has ever walked on earth, was not to oppress but because he recognised that that pattern of marriage between a man and a woman and the natural family is the means of human flourishing and in the best interests of individuals, of children and of society as a whole," Marsh said.
"[Jesus] gave his life in order to bring restoration, healing and forgiveness...He gives us a pattern so that we might flourish.
"All of us fail and fall short of God's pattern for sexuality. But the answer to that is not to remove the pattern that God has given; it is to recognise that Jesus laid down His life so that we might be forgiven, restored, there might be hope for the future and that indeed is what God has promised."
Marsh made certain to underline, however, that God does not reject people simply because they are gay. "God loves every single one of us, He's made us in his image, we're precious to him," he said.
Sir Elton is already in a civil partnership with his partner David Furnish, but the two are now planning to wed in a "very quiet" ceremony.
