Evangelicals Want Clear Distinction to Remain Between Religious & Civil Marriages

The Evangelical Alliance has stated its fears over the recent publication of the General Registry Office response to the government’s consultation on the ‘Content of Civil Marriage Ceremonies’. Particularly fears have been raised that the changes taking place will simply become the first step to creating a “hotch-potch” of religious symbolism and non-religious content in ceremonies.

|TOP|The comments have come in the same week that the Civil Partnership Act has come into force in Britain. The controversial legislation will allow homosexual couples similar legal rights as heterosexual married couples, although the civil partnership has not been given the title of marriage.

As the controversial Act came into force a senior British clergyman attacked the Civil Partnership Act. Rev Peter Smith, the Archbishop of Cardiff said, “What the Government should do in terms of public policy is support marriage rather than undermine it. To put beside marriage an alternative or what appears to be a perfectly approved legal alternative lifestyle I think does not help the institution of marriage at all.”

In addition to this, the government has written a consultation on the content of civil marriages, and in light of the General Registry Office’s response, the Evangelical Alliance has warned that it would contribute greatly to the blurring of the line between religious and civil marriages.

In particular, the Evangelical Alliance warns that the proposals would dilute the uniqueness, clarity and definition of Christian marriage.

|AD|Gareth Wallace, an Evangelical Alliance spokesperson comments, “The problem is that while hymns will still be banned in civil ceremonies, pop songs with religious lyrics will not. The Government has effectively conceded to allow incidental references to a god or deity during civil marriage ceremonies, providing that the overall context remains essentially non-religious.”

He continued, “It assumes that such distinctions can be made in practice. The Government was committed to keeping religious and civil marriage separate but has now bowed to social pressure. Our fear is that in time civil marriages, which are supposed to be strictly secular, will end up as a sort of folk religion hybrid, neither one thing nor the other.”

In conclusion the Evangelical body points to the fact that people have a clear option to be married in a church, or other places of worship, or can just as easily hold their wedding ceremony in a Registry Office if they did not want a religious setting.

The Alliance strongly urged the government to halt the erosion of religious marriage, and not allow it to be undermined even further.