A homosexual Tory MP has said that he would need “serious convincing” that churches would not be forced to marry same-sex couples if the government redefines marriage.
Belfast born Conor Burns also said in his interview with Northern Irish paper The News Letter: “I marvel at why we’re bringing this forward; there is no clamour for this at all within the gay community”.
The MP for Bournemouth West, Branksome East and Alderney expressed unease about the Prime Minister’s assurance that churches would not be forced to conduct same-sex ceremonies.
Insufficient guarantees
“I’m very concerned”, said Mr Burns, “and I’m going to need some serious convincing about this – that while the Human Rights Act remains in place we cannot give the guarantees that I would want to see that churches would not ultimately be forced under human rights legislation to conduct such ceremonies.
“I would want, if this bill becomes law, cast iron guarantees that any religious organisation who on religious grounds object to it would not ultimately be compelled to do that”.
He added: “Until those guarantees are in place, I have massive reservations”.
Marriage ‘a force for good’
However, the MP also voiced deeper concerns about the redefinition of marriage itself.
“I’m a conservative both with a big C and a small c. Marriage is an institution that is the building block of stable society”, stated Mr Burns.
“All the evidence points to the fact that kids who are brought up by a married couple have higher education attainment rates, lower propensity to commit crime; marriage is a force for good in society and I think you need absolutely compelling reasons to want to redefine what marriage means.
“At the moment I am not convinced that those compelling reasons exist”.
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