Senior US Catholics and Evangelicals join forces to condemn gay marriage

Senior US Evangelicals and Catholics have joined together to release a statement that insists same-sex marriages are not real marriages, “irrespective” of what the the law says.

Following a wave of same-sex marriages bans being struck down last year, the Supreme Court justices are set to hear cases from four different states – Kentucky, Michigan, Ohio and Tennessee – later this year. Find out more here.

Bigots

The statement, which will feature in the March edition of US religious journal First Things, states that people with Christian beliefs “cannot” embrace the “falsification of reality,” and argues that society’s “dignity is diminished” when the image of God is “obscured” by gay marriage.

“We must say, as clearly as possible, that same-sex unions, even when sanctioned by the state, are not marriages,” the statement, titled “The Two Shall Become One Flesh: Reclaiming Marriage,” they say. “Christians who wish to remain faithful to the Scriptures and Christian tradition cannot embrace this falsification of reality, irrespective of its status in law.”

They continue: “The revolution in our marriage and family law, already well advanced, marches under the banners of freedom and equality. But these noble ideals are here gravely misapplied. When society systematically denies the difference between male and female in law and custom, our fundamental dignity is diminished, the image of God within us is obscured, unreality becomes legally established, and those who refuse to conform are regarded as irrational bigots.”

The religious groups go on to argue they “owe it to their fellow citizens” to reinforce the “unalterable” image of the traditional family.

“Keeping in mind the obligation to speak the truth in love, we must find ways to distinguish true marriage from its distortion, and we must do so without abandoning the public square,” the statement says. “We owe our fellow citizens a socially engaged witness to the truth about marriage, which, with the family, is the unalterable foundation of a healthy, humane society.”

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