Homosexuality against the Bible, court hears

A dissident group of ministers has challenged the leadership's directive not to oversee such unions

Homosexuality is against the Bible and so same sex marriages should not be allowed. This is what the Constitutional Court heard from a religious factions who have been allowed to contribute to the court's deliberations on the legal definition of marriage.

The court is hearing an application to appeal a Supreme Court of Appeal ruling that a common law should be developed to allow same sex marriage. "There is no escaping the fact that in both testaments homosexual acts are condemned in very strong language," said John Smyth of Doctors For Life.

Same sex unions deeply wounding for religious people, Smyth
Smyth says to allow same sex unions would cause "violence to the mind and spirit" of deeply religious people and would discriminate against them. He quoted sections of the Bible according to which God said that a man and a woman must "cleave" together to procreate.

However, at this point, Judge Albie Sachs interjected to say it would be a "worrying day" if judges were asked to give meaning to religious texts. Kate O'Regan, another judge said that marriage was sacred, not just because of religious texts.

Earlier, the Marriage Alliance defined marriage as a unique institution that recognised the lifelong partnership between a man and a woman and that sex Gerrit Pretorius, their advocate says that allowing same sex marriages would eventually lead to discrimination against heterosexual couples.

Meanwhile, the department of home affairs believes that when the Supreme Court of Appeal ruled that a common law must be developed to allow same-sex marriages, it did so without having the authority to do so.

Earlier, statements by the department's advocate were met with laughter and gasps of disbelief from the public gallery. "Same-sex partnerships are a relatively new phenomenon...We don't know whether single-sex relationships involve the idea of mutual support," said Marumo Moerane, the advocate for the department. - Sapa