John Sentamu has been caught out telling porkies, in a statement explaining his position on same sex marriage in the Guardian he said
We [the bishops in the House of Lords] supported civil partnerships, because we believe that friendships are good for everybody.
No they didn't!
Professor of Politics at Oxford, Iain McLean pointed out that,
During the main Lords debate on the Civil Partnership Bill in June 2004 the then Bishop of Oxford Richard Harris did indeed signal support for civil partnerships however it was contradicted by 5 conservative Bishops, they voted 6/1 against. Six Bishops voted for a successful wrecking amendment in the name of Lady O'Cathain, only the Commons' insistence on rejecting this amendment made it possible to enact this bill.
In the eyes of many people Sentamu's patronising and long-winded writing is a mere cloak to disguise his backward and offensive views. He’d have saved a lot of time if he’d simply written ‘all couples are equal, but some are more equal than others, and that’s just the way it is’.
As Bishops are fond of claiming, life is indeed a mystery, and biggest mystery of all is why the British public put up with unelected bigots like John Sentamu in it's Government.
1 comment:
Contributors to this blog have been misled. The claims made by Professor McLean disregard the behaviour of the Lords Spiritual at the decisive final Lords vote on the Civil Partnerships Bill. The record clearly indicates support from the bishops for the legislation.
The voting to which Professor McLean refers relates to six bishops’ support for Baroness O Cathain’s amendment at the Report Stage. They agreed with her at that stage that the provision of Civil Partnerships should be available to siblings and cohabiting mixed sex couples. The then Bishop of Worcester voted against this amendment, which was passed in the Lords but then overturned in the Commons.
When the bill returned to the Lords on 17th Nov. 2004 Baroness O’Cathain attempted once again to broaden the provision by a further amendment, but this time bishops voted eight to two in favour of the legislation as it stood. A clear majority expressed their support for the bill introducing Civil Partnerships for same sex couples. It is to this decisive vote in support of the Bill that the Archbishop of York referred in his Telegraph interview and recent Guardian article. To read the debate please click the link below.
http://hansard.millbanksystems.com/lords/2004/nov/17/schedule#column_1454 (scroll down for vote record
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