Another reason to part ways with Strasbourg

Even for people on the same side of an argument, opinion is often wildly divided. Among those of us who believe government should support civil marriage equality, this morning’s papers (£), and specifically Church of England fears that the religious will be ‘forced’ to carry out same-sex weddings, re-opens a fundamental division of opinion.
 
The coalition’s proposals rightly only relate to civil marriage equality (that the state should make civil marriage between same-sex couples equal to civil marriage between opposite-sex couples). It has always seemed obvious to me that if the government pushes ahead with same-sex civil marriage then it should do so only if it can ensure that ‘Human Rights legislation’ will not be used to force religions to carry out religious same-sex marriages. Nevertheless there may be some who will look forward to challenging the churches (I suspect only the churches) in Strasbourg to ensure that civil marriage equality — instead of remaining civil — becomes something else, with various religious denominations getting in trouble with the law if they refuse to marry same-sex couples religiously.
 
As I have written before, here and elsewhere, the only religious same-sex marriages which should take place are those within denominations which have made the decision to perform such services themselves. The Quakers and Reform Jews have already said that they will — which means that if you are a gay Quaker or a gay member of the Reform Judaism movement then you may soon be able to marry, both civilly and religiously, in your place of worship. But it must also mean that if you are a member of a denomination which does not make this step — say a Roman Catholic or an Orthodox Jew — then you either change denomination, accept the fact you will never have your relationship blessed by that denomination (as opposed to recognised in law), or work within your religion to try to influence its collective mind.