@John
Her Majesty’s Government can no more change the definition of marriage than they can declare that God does not exist.
"Sure they can. Marriage under the law can be whatever the government says it is. If the church wants to have its own definition and claim someone isn't married, they can (and some do) - but that has no effect on the civil definition."
And - a year or so ago - they did.
And all due to the C-of-E bishops & archbishops in the House of Lords dropping their opposition to same-sex marriage. Thus the MPs in the House of Commons passed the S-SM marriage Bill unopposed.
Thus not long afterwards, at the subsequent official opening of Parliament, and in her speech detailing all new legislation, Queen Elizabeth II - head of the same Church of England - changed the definition of marriage.
'The homosexuals will now be targeting freedom of speech and Christianity itself', you say? The C-of-E is still here, still being the bastion of tolerance it was always meant to be: Christian.
The same Church of England was the basis of modern Protestant Christianity, so they know that to survive, they have to change. Funny how it's working out for you fundies and all:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/10781259/Attorney-General-Rise-of-fundamentalism-is-damaging-Christianity.html (emphasis added):
'He said that 1,500 years of Christian values are “not going to disappear overnight” and said that many people remain believers even if they choose not to go to Church.
However, he warned people are being discouraged from openly declaring their beliefs because of the “deep intolerance” of religious extremists of all faiths, including Islam and Christianity.'
And if the Conservative Party's Dominic Grieve - a devout C-of-E Christian himself - realises that Fundamentalism spells it's own annihilation, then if 'Intolerance' will never be tolerated in the tolerant Britain (I refer you to Oswald Moseley & his Blackshirts), then your 'intolerance' has no right to exist.
If we can survive 30 years of the Christian IRA, then Al-Qaeda/ISIS et al stands no chance. Precisely because of our bloodymindedness & the fact we Brits will never tolerate intolerance. [/The Blitz/V-1s/V-2s]
