Muslims and Christians defending family life together


A priest whom I know, went to talk to the local Imam to discuss their common concern about same-sex "marriage". Here is his report which I publish with his permission:
Today the two priests in our parish had lunch at a local Mosque.

We have met the Imam before and have worked together on local issues. But today we met with him and some other members of their community to discuss “same-sex marriage”, which is a common concern.

The Imam said how pleased he was to hear about the postcard campaign which was arranged by our Bishops. He is going to organise something similar in his Mosque and suggest the idea to others.

It was wonderful to find that our views about the government’s proposed legislation are exactly the same.

We were all concerned that the “re-definition” of Marriage will cause same-sex marriage to be promoted in schools. And we gave them a printout of the Coalition for Marriage’s latest booklet about same-sex marriage and Primary Schools, which explains about this and shows some samples of the sort of materials which would be used.

Muslim families, we were told, are already very concerned about what their children are taught in school.

I asked, “What right does the government have to take away the rights of parents in this way?”

We also discussed the fact that the new law would make it much more difficult for people in the workplace to hold their religious views about marriage.

Many of the issues identified by Aidan O’Neill QC in his paper on “same-sex marriage” and religious freedom apply also to Muslims.

As the Imam said, it’s not just a matter of toleration. Rather, the new law and its effect will mean that we have to approve of lifestyles which are against our beliefs – or pay the price.

We’re being discriminated against!

Though we didn’t mention the exact phrase, we all seemed to think that the “Dictatorship of Relativism” is the order of the day.

Why is there, the Imam wondered, this haste to re-define Marriage – for a tiny minority of people?

Why take away the freedoms of an enormous number of people, so as to accommodate a minority group?

Marriage is something arranged by God when he created the world, part of our human nature.

We agreed that local campaigns are sometimes more effective than national efforts. Readers of this blog might like to approach the Muslims in their local area. I’m sure they would find a welcome from like-minded allies.

It’s great to find new friends in the local community.

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