UPDATE
The Australian Christian Lobby has dismissed a new Galaxy research poll showing a small majority of Australian Christians support gay marriage as ‘absurd’.
ACL chief Jim Wallace said the poll should have questioned whether the participants actually went to church.
‘Certainly my work with Evangelical, Catholic and Orthodox churches leaves me in no doubt that the great majority of their adherents don’t support same-sex marriage,’ he said.
‘I think a simple additional question on the poll that determined if the person actually attended a church might have made the result more informative.’
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August 16
More Australian Christians support same-sex marriage than oppose it with 53 per cent in favour, a new Galaxy poll has revealed.
Released today, the poll of 1060 Australians found only 41 per cent of Australian Christians opposed same-sex marriage while 67 per cent of non-Christian Australians supported it.
Uniting Church Chaplain and Murdoch University Emeritus Professor Rev. William Loader told OUTinPerth he was surprised by the news.
‘I am surprised… I think maybe it reflects more intelligent discussion among Christians – which is a good thing,’ Prof. Loader said.
‘I think at one level it reflects a changing mood in the community.
‘More and more people coming out means people are seeing very significant people in the media …who are gay and I think that is changing attitudes.’
Galaxy polled 103 West Australians and found 64 per cent were in favour of gay marriage. However, only 45 per cent of WA respondents identified as Christian while 45 per cent of participants in the state expressed no religion.
Other Christian leaders have announced support for gay marriage including Sydney Minister Bill Crews and Melbourne Baptist Pastor Matt Glover.
‘In a secular and non discriminatory society gay couples should be as free to marry as any other human couple,’ Rev Crews said.
‘If people wish to be married within a religious or spiritual institution’s framework then they should accept the rites and rules of that institution. However it is the state that legitimises all marriages.’
Today also marked National Marriage Day, where marriage traditionalists rallied in Canberra against allowing gay couples to marry.
Australian Marriage Equality spokesperson Malcolm McPherson, himself a Christian, said the poll shows church leaders and Christian lobbyists who oppose same-sex marriage are not representative.
‘Christian groups that oppose marriage equality like the Australian Christian Lobby are entitled to their view, but they do not represent the majority of Australian Christians,’ McPherson said.
‘Clearly, most Australian Christians believe same-sex marriage is consistent with Christian values like justice, love, compassion and fidelity, not opposed to these values.’
Australian Christian Lobby WA director Michelle Pearse and WA Uniting Friends spokesperson Ian Tozer were unavailable for comment.
Benn Dorrington
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