Christian Democrats call for right to withhold hospitality from gays
-18/09/06
The Chri
Christian Democrats call for right to withhold hospitality from gays
-18/09/06
The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) party has called on the Government to
include a ‘conscience clause’ in the new Sexual Orientation Regulations going before Parliament next month.
The Government’s new regulations are intended to ensure that gay and lesbian people are not discriminated against in the provision of goods, facilities and services.
The Christian Democrats however are seeking an exemption that would allow religious people to withhold goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation.
Speaking after discussions at the party’s policy-making body, the CPA Federal Council, Peter Flower, President, said: “We have already made strong representations to the Government during the consultation period earlier
in the year.
“But concerns remain that the Government is not listening to the voice of people of faith – Christians, Jews and Muslims who all have deeply held beliefs. The intended regulations will force them to break the law if they are required to provide services, such as letting out rooms, or halls to those whose practices run contrary to their beliefs.”
The former magistrate added: “Christian Democrats condemn hatred when it is expressed through unreasoned and irrational homophobia. But suppliers of goods and services must be allowed to provide these services in such a way that does not violate individual and corporate conscience.”
He concluded: “There is sound precedent for such conscience clauses in English and
Scottish law – from those in the medical and nursing professions who hold
that abortion is abhorrent, to the exemptions allowed for the preparation
of meat which is halal or kosher. We will not be satisfied until the
Government extend this principle to their proposed regulations on sexual
orientation.”
Many Christians however – even those who hold a ‘conservative’ position on homosexuality – will baulk at the position that the Christian Democrats have taken, pointing out that the Christian tradition of hospitality is one where goods and services are provided in particular to those people whose behaviour religious people may not agree with.
Jesus in particular is recorded in the Gospels as eating and drinking with many people with whom the religious authorities did not approve.
In a review of one of the classic books on Christian hospitality in recent years; ‘Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl, David Gushee, of Union University states; “When we eat with the lowly and welcome strangers and ‘sinners’ to our table, we topple social expectations and bear witness to the kind of love God has for all his creatures.
“It is not coincidental that Jesus perhaps most scandalized his critics in his practice of table fellowship. ‘He eats with tax collectors and sinners’ ó this was not a compliment. And it was precisely the radical nature of Christian hospitality, Pohl shows, that characterized the early church, helped spread the Gospel, and healed the dramatic social barriers that initially confronted the church as the Gospel permeated the Greco-Roman world.”
Find books on radical Christian hospitality here
Christian Democrats call for right to withhold hospitality from gays
-18/09/06
The Christian Peoples Alliance (CPA) party has called on the Government to
include a ‘conscience clause’ in the new Sexual Orientation Regulations going before Parliament next month.
The Government’s new regulations are intended to ensure that gay and lesbian people are not discriminated against in the provision of goods, facilities and services.
The Christian Democrats however are seeking an exemption that would allow religious people to withhold goods and services on the basis of sexual orientation.
Speaking after discussions at the party’s policy-making body, the CPA Federal Council, Peter Flower, President, said: “We have already made strong representations to the Government during the consultation period earlier
in the year.
“But concerns remain that the Government is not listening to the voice of people of faith – Christians, Jews and Muslims who all have deeply held beliefs. The intended regulations will force them to break the law if they are required to provide services, such as letting out rooms, or halls to those whose practices run contrary to their beliefs.”
The former magistrate added: “Christian Democrats condemn hatred when it is expressed through unreasoned and irrational homophobia. But suppliers of goods and services must be allowed to provide these services in such a way that does not violate individual and corporate conscience.”
He concluded: “There is sound precedent for such conscience clauses in English and
Scottish law – from those in the medical and nursing professions who hold
that abortion is abhorrent, to the exemptions allowed for the preparation
of meat which is halal or kosher. We will not be satisfied until the
Government extend this principle to their proposed regulations on sexual
orientation.”
Many Christians however – even those who hold a ‘conservative’ position on homosexuality – will baulk at the position that the Christian Democrats have taken, pointing out that the Christian tradition of hospitality is one where goods and services are provided in particular to those people whose behaviour religious people may not agree with.
Jesus in particular is recorded in the Gospels as eating and drinking with many people with whom the religious authorities did not approve.
In a review of one of the classic books on Christian hospitality in recent years; ‘Making Room: Recovering Hospitality as a Christian Tradition by Christine D. Pohl, David Gushee, of Union University states; “When we eat with the lowly and welcome strangers and ‘sinners’ to our table, we topple social expectations and bear witness to the kind of love God has for all his creatures.
“It is not coincidental that Jesus perhaps most scandalized his critics in his practice of table fellowship. ‘He eats with tax collectors and sinners’ ó this was not a compliment. And it was precisely the radical nature of Christian hospitality, Pohl shows, that characterized the early church, helped spread the Gospel, and healed the dramatic social barriers that initially confronted the church as the Gospel permeated the Greco-Roman world.”