10th May, 2012

The Australian Christian Lobby has "rejected" US President Barack Obama's announcement that he supports homosexual marriage as "the actions of a political leader duped by activist campaigning".

In a television interview this week, President Obama said he had "been going through an evolution on this issue". "I've always been adamant that gay and lesbian Americans should be treated fairly and equally. At a certain point I've just concluded that, for me personally, it is important for me to go ahead and affirm that I think same-sex couples should be able to get married."

In a statement, Jim Wallace, ACL managing director, said that "(e)ven the President of the United States cannot change biology and the reality of the importance of fatherhood and motherhood that marriage enshrines".

“There would have to be some substantive discrimination that you were addressing to do that, and certainly in Australia there is none, as was well proven at last week’s Senate public hearings," he said.

Mr Wallace said that only one per cent of couples in the US are homosexual and said it was estimated that less than 15 per cent of those would ever marry given take-up rates in countries where marriage has been redefined.

“That a political leader would be prepared to abandon such a large section of the population who hold marriage deeply even sacredly, to satisfy the ambit claims on it by activists reveals a poor sense of justice,” Mr Wallace said.

He added that it was "ridiculous" for the US President to think redefining marriage "will not make it impossible to reject calls for polygamy by the next wave, when those agendas are already being pushed in US courts".

Mr Wallace also rejected claims that any significant Christian communities in Australia supported the redefinition of marriage. “All mainstream denominations have made public statements rejecting any redefinition of marriage."

- DAVID ADAMS
~ www.acl.org.au