|
|
 |
| |
Registrar hounded over her deeply-held beliefs
• AS a retired Baptist minister living in Islington, I was saddened to read of the way in which Islington Council, which does so much good for the people of our borough in so many different ways, has suspended from duty one of its female registrars for refusing, on grounds of conscience, to conduct civil partnership ceremonies for homosexual couples.
Things have come to a pretty pass when a Christian employee is faced with dismissal merely because she refuses to take part in something which would mean her condoning homosexual relationships and degenerating Christian marriage.
Surely, with no fewer than 13 registrars available to conduct Registry Office ceremonies at the Town Hall, those responsible could have arranged for one of the other registrars to take civil partnership ceremonies when required, instead of rigidly and insensitively insisting that the Christian registrar in question take some of the civil partnership ceremonies now authorised by law?
Why cannot the council take this more sensible and sensitive route, a route followed today by many other individual employers and organisations whose rules and requirements bring them into conflict with the deeply held religious beliefs and convictions of some of their most valued and conscientious staff?
If the council persists in hounding this registrar, as it seems to be doing at present, it may well find itself in deep trouble, for liberty of conscience in matters of faith is a fundamental right, and as such must take precedence over even the law of the land.
The registrar in question may have suffered the indignity of being suspended from her post, and been the target of the usual abuse from members of Stonewall and its fellow travellers, but she has little to fear and certainly nothing to be ashamed of.
Her cause is good, and she will quickly gain the support and prayers of Christians throughout the country, once the facts of her case become more widely known. The sinfulness and consequences of homosexual practices are clearly and consistently taught throughout Holy Scripture, a fine example being in Paul’s Epistle to the Romans chapter 1, verses 26, 27; while the same Apostle gives us, in his Epistle to the Ephesians, chapter 5, verses 22-33, one of the most beautiful descriptions of the nature and duties of the Christian marriage union to be found in the Bible.
The Christian whose conscience is subject to the Word of God may be sure he has the Divine Author of that Word on his side: “...but to this man will I look, even to him that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and trembleth at my word” (Isaiah 66:2). This being so, all Christians will know just how much credence to give to Councillor Joan Coupland’s branding of the Christian registrar’s convictions as “prejudices”.
One question remains: what should be the true Christian’s attitude to homosexuals? Surely, both the letter and the spirit of the Gospel require him to love the sinner, while abhorring the sin? This year, I celebrate the 51st anniversary of my own conversion to Christ, and if there is one lesson I have learned over the years it is that no one is beyond the pale.
The Gospel has not lost its ancient and long-proven power to rescue and transform lives. In days like these, when so many people in our land are tasting, in different ways, the bitter fruits of years of atheistic teaching, and the behaviour it inevitably spawns, it is good to remind ourselves again of the great promise of Christ in the Gospel: “I am the light of the world: he that followeth me shall not walk in darkness, but shall have the light of life” (John 8:12).
REV PD JOHNSON
Yerbury Road, N19
|
 |
|
| |
| Your Comments : |
| |
| |
| |
|
|
|
