A MATTER OF CONSCIENCE

A law has been passed which allows churches to marry homosexual couples, ie officiate at gay weddings if they so choose.
Hot on it's heels comes a statement from the General Synod of the Church of England which declares that no Church of England church will automatically marry gay couples.
And, you know, through the hysteria on both sides, the General Synod have a point.
Just imagine if a vegetarian went to work at McDonald's and tried to force the restaurant to not handle bits of murdered animal? Not just that restaurant but all of them? It wouldn't be right, would it?*
It's not like a chemist refusing to serve a woman with the morning after pill. It's us going onto their territory and telling them they must do things that in all conscience, not to cause trouble and annoy people (the CofE is very liberal in many ways)they believe are wrong.
Peter Tatchell is a good man and a courageous man and unlike a lot of armchair protesters puts his money where his mouth is, so to speak (suffered mild brain damage from beatings he received by the local police in countries where he stood up for gay rights). But to say churches have to follow their conscience and then saying they are being stopped from doing so only if they don't do what we want is not right.
Some people believe a certain way is wrong. Like the vegetarian in McDonald's, for someone to go onto that person's territory and tell them they must do what they believe is wrong shouldn't be.
Gay people are treated well under the law in the UK, unlike some countries where the religious are trying to (or have) take the rights of gays to even exist. Those who want to marry in church and aren't allowed should live with it. There are churches who will perform gay marriages ceremonies. To go to the CofE and insist they do something their conscience tells them is wrong is like (a milder form) tell a gay man or woman, yes you can marry, you have the right, but someone of the opposite gender. It's not natural, if you like.
Of course, McDonald's is a bad example. The example the CofE gave, of a gentleman's outfitters not being forced to sell ladies clothes is also not a perfect example. That is business, not personal. It isn't against McDonald's conscience or the gentleman's outfitter's conscience to go against what the business is about, but then today conscience is a state to be mocked and compromised with, overridden and gone round.

*Yes it would. Killing anything for any reason, apart from to end suffering and in (genuine) self defence is wrong, but that's another story.