Sweden Approves Gay Marriage

The march of gay equality continues overseas even as the USA continues to allow impermissible religious belief to impact the civil laws in this country in violation of the separation of church and state allegedly guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution. The latest nation to embrace gay equality under the law is Sweden which today saw its legislature vote for gender neutral marriage by a large margin. Sweden joins a growing list of nations where gays are entitled to equal marriage rights or rights approximating marriage. No doubt the professional Christian set in the USA will be shrieking yet again as if the world were ending. Here are some highlights from Top News:

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Stockholm - A broad majority in the Swedish parliament Wednesday approved adoption of same-sex marriage legislation after a six-hour debate. Six of the seven parties in parliament had backed the proposal drafted by the Committee on Civil Affairs to introduce a gender- neutral marriage law. . . . The proposal was approved by a 261 to 22 vote, with 16 abstentions.

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The new legislation is to take effect as of May 1, and replaces the legislation approved in 1995 that allows same-sex couples to form a union in Sweden via registered partnership. Couples who have registered partnership can keep that status or amend it by an application to the authorities or marry.

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The changes will not affect church marriage ceremonies for the time being. The Church of Sweden, a Lutheran church, was this autumn due to discuss its stance. It was disestablished in 2000, receiving the same "faith community" designation as other faiths, such as the Pentecostal, Baptist, Roman Catholic, Jewish and Muslim. A majority of bishops in the Church of Sweden in February said the church should no longer handle legal registrations of marriage.

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For the USA, a solution to the issue of same sex marriage is to get the churches of all denominations out of the civil marriage business. Marriage should be a civil law issue handled by the government and church marriage ceremonies should be left t the churches to decide how they will or will not accept same sex unions.