Craig says he would vote for gay marriage if electorate backs it
February 20th, 2013 at 12:00 pm by David FarrarIsaac Davidson at NZ Herald reports:
Conservative Party leader Colin Craig is using his personal wealth to make a nationwide drop of leaflets which criticise MPs who do not follow their electorate’s wishes.
His office has published and distributed 200,000 leaflets at a cost of $55,000 – a figure which Mr Craig expects to double as he ramps up his party’s electioneering.
The leaflets have accused MPs of ignoring their electorates in making changes against the wishes of the majority, such as the anti-smacking bill and asset sales.
Mr Craig was especially critical of Prime Minister John Key for backing a bill to legalise same-sex marriage – a move he felt was out of tune with Mr Key’s Helensville electorate.
“This is not an insignificant issue. The majority of people genuinely feel their MP should be guided by their own electorate and not their own opinion.”
I disagree entirely. I quote (again) Edmund Burke:
Certainly, Gentlemen, it ought to be the happiness and glory of a representative to live in the strictest union, the closest correspondence, and the most unreserved communication with his constituents. Their wishes ought to have great weight with him; their opinions high respect; their business unremitted attention. It is his duty to sacrifice his repose, his pleasure, his satisfactions, to theirs,—and above all, ever, and in all cases, to prefer their interest to his own.
But his unbiased opinion, his mature judgment, his enlightened conscience, he ought not to sacrifice to you, to any man, or to any set of men living. These he does not derive from your pleasure,—no, nor from the law and the Constitution. They are a trust from Providence, for the abuse of which he is deeply answerable. Your representative owes you, not his industry only, but his judgment; and he betrays instead of serving you if he sacrifices it to your opinion.
As much as I would personally benefit from MPs making all their decisions based on opinion polls, I think it is wrong. Public opinion is always something to be considered and of influence. But at the end of the day decisions should be made on the basis of whether you believe an action is good or bad.
Mr Craig said that if he was elected, he would vote for gay marriage if his electorate demanded it, in spite of his strong opposition to the law change.
Really? Honestly?
Okay so does this mean if Colin Craig was an electorate MP and a poll showed the majority of his electorate support abortion on demand, Colin Craig would vote for the law to be abortion on demand – no matter how strongly he personally feels it is murder?
I’d like to see an answer to that question. Would Colin Craig vote for abortion on demand if a majority of the electorate backed it?
I doubt it.
Related posts:
- Guest Post: Colin Craig on whether he would vote for “Abortion on Demand”?
- Colin Craig says Kiwis will flee to Australia to escape gay married couples
- That poll which shows Colin Craig ahead in Rodney, revealed
- PM says gay marriage doesn’t affect his marriage to Bronagh
February 20th, 2013 at 12:04 pm
So the guy is prepared to yield to popular sentiment for some things and not others.
Hang him, I say!
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
What about Key’s comments about the unaffordability of interest-free student loans?
Vote:Smile and wave said he knew NZ couldn’t affor them, but it would be a bad “political” call given the electorate’s opinion.
February 20th, 2013 at 12:08 pm
Paging Redbaiter!
You are needed urgently in this thead!
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:11 pm
The problem with living in a “secular” country is of course that there is absolutely no moral reference to lay the foundation of what is good, or right, or even sensible.
Therefore as this issue so amply demonstrates is when the ruling elite have a brain fart, no matter how absurd, ridiculous and detrimental to the long term public good it becomes law.
Of course New Zealand only became “secular” because the looneys kept on saying it was so until it was so
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:13 pm
Mr Craig has a notable history of producing opinion polls which say just what he happens to want. A neat solution to this dichotomy.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:15 pm
I think you’ll find most politicians do that, s.russell!
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:24 pm
Interesting question.
I’ve had a good look in to the practicalities of direct democracy including standing last election and offering it. This question highlights some of the issues you can find. No system is perfect.
Another complication would be if another Conservative MP in another electorate voted for abortion – would Craig be happy with that?
As well as personal conscience issues MPs also have a responsibility for the good of the country, and in some circumstances that could and probably should take precedence over local interests.
I think the only practical way to make more direct democracy work on an electorate basis is to use polling as a strong influence but not binding. Any MP needs to have a means of voting on their conscience.
The key to making this acceptable is goodd communication – if an MP said that he acknowledges the apparent will of the electorate but is voting contrary to that and gave solid and legitimate reasons – personal conscience or for the good of the country, then it should be workable.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:28 pm
s.russell raise another good point.
I’ve seen quite a few proposals of people power and direct democracy, and in most cases people are not actually wanting better democracy with the rule of the majority, they actually want democracy to back their pet causes.
I think the Greens confuse their democracy model in this way. The asset sale referendum is one example but they do it in other ways as well, there was a local example of this happening on fracking.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:35 pm
What a pathetic and twisted perversion of what Craig says.
Really Mr Farrar, you’ve just morphed into another mainstream media commentator replete with all of the usual left wing trappings.
Craig is wrong on asset sales. Why don’t you go after him on that?
I’ll tell you. Same old same old. The National Party, because of its cowardice and incompetence, is too intimidated by the left to advocate for the policies it professes to believe in.
Next election is a choice between the Maori Party and Gay marriage, or the Conservative Party. (Unless you vote Labour/ extreme left)
Obviously National thinks its supporters are going for the former of those two choices.
I reckon they’re in for a shock come election time. You’ll have to work a lot harder at destroying Colin Craig if you want your Maori Party separatist and racist friends to profit.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:39 pm
For all the talk about marriage equality, gay activists don’t actually have in mind the same thing that heterosexuals typically view as normal. Most seek to radically expand and alter the common understanding of marriage. Long term monogamous fidelity is never part of this new understanding.
Evidence can be provided as to why those in favour of homosexual marriage do not necessarily think in terms of marriage as it is commonly accepted. For example, one homosexual writer, Andree w Sullivan – a favourite of our very own home grown pseudo-Right wing fag stag, Cameron Slater – writes that if homosexual marriage contracts come into force, they would have to be “different”. That is, they would have to allow for “extra marital outlets” and other major changes. That of course undermines the very essence of marriage, which is a covenant for life-long sexual faithfulness.
Sullivan:
Lesbian activist Paula Ettlebrick:
ref: Sullivan: Virtually Normal: An Argument About Homosexuality (London: Picador 1996, pg202)
BTW: But for the grace of anti-retroviral treatments, Mr Sullivan’s T-Cell count would’ve dwindled down to a fatal level years ago.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:41 pm
Kolin Cwaig knows what the electorate really wants, and he’s saying what the electorate really wants. Just ask him.
You can see how right he is, by looking at how well he did in the last general election.
LOL
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 12:44 pm
“The problem with living in a “secular” country is of course that there is absolutely no moral reference to lay the foundation of what is good, or right, or even sensible.”
Thats right, because ‘the church’ is the only real moral authority we have.
Im sorry but Im calling bollocks to that. The church – which one BTW? – has and never has had ANY moral authority over ‘society’ other than the one it assumed it had. Your church has no moral authority andrei, and thank goodness for that.
The church has demonstrated over hundreds of years its utter lack of anything approaching morality. Go pedal that shit where low IQ labour voters can buy in to it.
February 20th, 2013 at 12:57 pm
Colin the Con told the Rodney electorate what they wanted in November 2011 and they told him back they preferred Mark Mitchell. He acts and sounds more and more like Khoder Nassar.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Marriage is an institution for the development of children – abortion is the complete opposite. A graveyard!
Electorates are against gay marriage THEREFOR they would certainly be against abortion!
The womb used to be the safest place in NZ for the most vunerable. Now it is the most dangerous place on earth.
And the very same people who bought you abortion are now pushing for gay marriage.
These people are taking a jack hammer to the foundations of NZ society and will dance within it’s ruins.
If you let them. If you hate children too!
February 20th, 2013 at 1:00 pm
Homosexual activists Kirk and Madsen wrote about how “open relationships” are so appealing to homosexual lovers. They speak about the “wayward impulse” as being “inevitable in man-to-man affairs, as in man-to-woman, only, for gays, it starts itching faster”.
They went on to say that:
William Aaron, a former homosexual activist, explains why concepts such as “monogamy” must be redefined by homosexuals:
American homosexual activist Michelangelo Signorile makes similar remarks, urging activists to:
Or as he said several years later:
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:05 pm
“Would Colin Craig vote for abortion on demand if a majority of the electorate backed it? I doubt it.”
Stupid question, as are all in the same vein. If a question such as this is asked it is asked during the election. Therefore the voters and the candidates have a chance to define/ refine their positions if necessary.
If it turned out the candidate has views so contrary to his electorate, he will not be elected. If the voters agree with him he is elected, and he therefore does what the electorate elected him to do.
This “question” argument is a straw man argument.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:11 pm
He has one thing right though. There is strong opposition against gay marriage.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:14 pm
And the very same people who bought you abortion are now pushing for gay marriage.
These people are taking a jack hammer to the foundations of NZ society and will dance within it’s ruins.
If you let them. If you hate children too!
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Not sure if the double negative was intended, but there is strong opposition to ‘gay marriage’ from a very vocal minority. There is also strong support for marriage equality from another minority.
And to varying degrees the majority of people in between are now tending towards supporting marriage equality.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:18 pm
Your representative, therefore, has to have a well-formed conscience. The morals and life of each person elected need to be held to the highest scrutiny, if we are going to rely on politicians’ consciences.
How many times do we hear that a politician’s private life has no bearing on his decisions in public life? It has every bearing, it tells us what type of person he or she is and whether his or her conscience can be trusted.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:21 pm
lol, talk about straw man argument, reddy. Nice one.
No electorate candidate will have 100% exactly the same views as those who elected him or even know his position on very single topic. That’s just absurd. Especially since you do not know everything that possibly may be voted on in the next 3 years anyway.
Not only that, most of the votes are not conscience votes anyway and such a consultation would only apply to those votes.
Besides an electorate candidate should represent all of his electorate and not just those who voted for him.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:21 pm
Edmund Burke was full of crap.
If government has to be involved in matters of morality or conscience (which it shouldn’t) then MPs should be bound by the promises they make on the election hustings. There are enough people who claim the right to think for me & I feel no need to add MP’s to the list.
Democracy is a shaky affair at the best of times & liars undermine what little say the electorate has.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:22 pm
“He has one thing right though. There is strong opposition against gay marriage.”
Yes, a fact that shows the polls are rigged.
Its also why GayNZ, the foremost activists for redefining marriage are against a referendum.
Its also why the fixed and dishonest Select Committee looking into the bill have binned thousands of public submissions.
The Select Committee is a fraud upon the people of NZ and every politician sitting in parliament who remains silent on this disgracefully dishonest fraud is a coward and a collaborator.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Gays have the same fertility rates as hetrosexuals.
Childophobes would support abortion on demand !
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:23 pm
Harriet’s hyperboles are seemingly limitless
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:24 pm
“Harriet’s hyperboles are seemingly limitless”
As is your penchant for trolling.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:35 pm
Now we as a society are rightly concerned about child sexual abuse.
But in NZ today, at KB, in National, in Labour, if you do that, that is, stand up for the welfare of children – you’re a homophobe!
We should be doing all we can to promote and protect the institutions of marriage and family. Why? Because research shows that the safest place for a child to be, is with his or her biological mother and father.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:36 pm
The job of an MP in a liberal democracy is to withdraw and restrain State interference with the way people choose to live, regardless of how many constituents want the State to tell people how to live or favour one way of living over another. That’s the job he ran for, not being the mouthpiece of a dictatorial majority in his electorate. Read some Hayek, Craig.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:38 pm
Oh yeah Ryan.
Of course they’re all flat out like a lizard drinking doing that. Craig isn’t though so let’s kick his arse right?
Get real tiger.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:39 pm
Show your kids how much you love them with violence!
Repeal S.59!
Homos don’t want to hit kids! What does that tell you about them?
[PS:
]
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:57 pm
“…The job of an MP in a liberal democracy is to withdraw and restrain State interference with the way people choose to live, regardless of how many constituents want the State to tell people how to live or favour one way of living over another. That’s the job he ran for, not being the mouthpiece of a dictatorial majority in his electorate. Read some Hayek, Craig…”
What a fucken load of crap!
Like other peoples money being given back to the people who had it taken from them?
Education being dictated by the state is going to stop then?
Smoking ?…………fuck you really are an idiot missing this one Ryan….as the gay lifestyle shortens peoples lives MORE than smoking does !
Let’s get rid of passive gays!
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 1:59 pm
I hope this dude gets into parliament. It takes one freakshow to balance out another freakshow.
hopefully he will bring in 2-3 other nutbars too.
List MP Redbaiter would be hilarious. He would love helping the conservatives grow the state, outlaw fun etc
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:01 pm
Funny how the topic is about how electorate MPs should vote in conscience votes, but some people just cant resist the gay overtones.
Mention “gay marriage” and they just can’t keep it together.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:03 pm
um Ryan nobody is telling people how to live Ryan, least of all Colin Craig. People are free to establish their personal realtionships in any way they choose. Nobody wants to stop them or inhibit them in anyway.
Gay “marriage” is about bringing the State into peoples personal relationships and creating rules and regulations around them
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:07 pm
Indeed.
Under the proposed gay marriage laws, state marriage inspectors could soon be knocking on your door, saying “Good Day, Mr & Mrs Jones. I notice you’re married – can I ask why you’re not gay, as is required under the new gay marriage laws?”
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:09 pm
It’s more that “marriage is bringing the State into peoples personal relationships and creating rules and regulations around them.”
If you want to repeal the marriage act and the state not recognise any kind of relationships, well fine. Say so.
But don’t pretend that gay marriage is going to have the state intrude on your life any more than it currently does. That’s just nonsense.
Vote:Gay marriage is not going to affect you one bit, andrei.
February 20th, 2013 at 2:12 pm
Read what I said, Andrei. I included “favour one way of living over another”. The State’s legislation that different-sex couples are legitimised as one thing while same-sex couples are called another is favouring one way of living over another.
It’s about trying to make equal an intrusion that it has no place doing to begin with. The proper way to solve this is to get the State out of marriage altogether.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:21 pm
“….Under the proposed gay marriage laws, state marriage inspectors could soon be knocking on your door, saying “Good Day, Mr & Mrs Jones. I notice you’re married – can I ask why you’re not gay, as is required under the new gay marriage laws?….”
Under the proposed gay marriage laws, state marriage inspectors could soon be knocking on your door, saying “Good day parent 1 & parent 2. Spouce 1 & Spouce 2.
There. Fixed your lies RMM.
Gay Marriage is demeaning to hetrosexuals when they HAVE to be called something completely differant so that just 2% of the population will ‘feel’ ‘better’ about ‘themselves’.
98% will feel worse!
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:22 pm
Craig is a Christian conservative. In the odd, we-know-best world inhabited by liberals, this means he’s wrong on any conservative issues if he makes a personal stand, and equally wrong and/or worthy of spite, if he seek to represent the views of his electorate.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
Which brings us to List MPs, who don’t owe anyone anything in terms of representation apart from their Leader. Yummy, I love democracy under MMP.
Denis O’Rourke NZFirst 697 votes ELECTED
Brendon Burns Labour 12,017 votes Not Elected.
Anyone who spends $55,000+ of his own money (I think only Colin Craig’s latest cheque?) consulting the Electorate on a major issue like this, should be in our parliament.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:33 pm
I am trying to get a copy of the pamphlet so we know what we are actually debating.
I there are plenty of politicians around that time who could be quoted about sorts of things. Many things have changed since Edmund Burke. Most notably MMP.
I cannot see any justification for allowing MPs who do not have an electorate to make a so called conscience vote on something that was not in any party’s manifesto and the vast majority of voters oppose such legislation oppose. The anti smacking law is a prime example.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:34 pm
RRM,
No, it will be more like, “Good Day, Mr & Mrs Jones. I notice you’re married – can I ask why you’ve withdrawn little Johnny from his new Equality Indoctrination class? Oh I see, you don’t believe that two men can actually be married despite what the law says. Well, this is a problem. I’m not sure you can be considered suitable parents if you don’t allow your child to be taught the new state mandated equality norms which will ensure that Johnny will not grow up to be a bigot. No room for bigots in this society. Now, can I come inside to discuss this with you? …”
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
I haven’t seen that in the legislation. I presume you mean heterosexuals, what does it say I HAVE to be called? And my wife?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:35 pm
Damned if he does, damned if he doesn’t.
My personal preference would be that he states his belief and also states that his role as an MP entails that he has no right to impose that belief on others, regardless of what his constituents think.
There are plenty of ways I’d like people to live that they don’t. It’s not my place to force them. I can try to convince them. But beyond reasoning with people or appealing to values I hold in common with them, it is not my place to use any position of power, authority or violence (all of which are basically synonyms) to impose them on others.
That’s what I’d like Colin Craig to act like.
But then, you know, I can’t force him.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:38 pm
Just curious, Harriet, after the law is passed, are you going to call yourself spouse 1 or spouse 2?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:41 pm
Didn’t Craig have a poll that showed “his” electorate were going to elect him in 2011? That should sound warning bells about Craig’s ability to divine the wishes of “his” electorate.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:46 pm
You can’t? Really? More like you don’t want to.
It’s called representative democracy. We elect our representatives, list and electorate ones, to represent us in parliament and make informed choices.
I am really amazed how many people get hung by the fact that’s is called “conscience” vote. Call it free vote. Call it non-party vote.
Vote:I want them to weigh up the facts and arguments and make an informed decision.
February 20th, 2013 at 2:56 pm
ROFLMAO
In the old days the parties used to produce things called manifestoes where they laid out their agenda for the next parliamentary term if elected.
And we had representatives, in each electorate the party put up someone to represent them and to sell their ideas to the people.
And the people chose.
But now we have people in parliament who actually received fuck all votes from the electors in theiir electorate promoting policies that appeared on no party manifesto and which if they had would have spelled electoral doom to the individual party.
No we have a ruling clique who think they rule by divine right and who are not beholden to the electorate at all.
Which is why we are getting so much crap
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 2:57 pm
No. It is about keeping religion out of peoples personal relationships.
It really is no problem for the religious folk and I do not know why they are so concerned. They are free to continue with their beliefs. Being gay is not going to be compulsory.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:04 pm
um How does it do that? How does religion get into peoples personal relationships with out them bringing it in voluntarily?
LOGIC FAIL
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:04 pm
Andrei…
Gay “marriage” is about bringing the State into peoples personal relationships and creating rules and regulations around them
That has been my position all along. I think that Ron Paul says it better.
Ron Paul on Gay Marriage: None of the State’s Business
The primary role of the state to morally justify its existence is : national defense, judiciary, law & order. Its function is not to make law to legally allow Mr. X to bumfuck Mr. Y , however two consenting male adults can still bumfuck each other given that they consent to the act. The State should not and have no moral authority to do anything about it.
Anyway, I’m not homophobic because I have gay mates. One of my gay mates have tried twice to make a move on me when we were drunk and I told him the last time when he tried, if he ever do that again, then his face will be kissing my fists, so the last party we were both at (last saturday night after the Heroes parade in Ponsonby), he wasn’t trying anything on me. I think he got the message.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:12 pm
Yes, andrei, I guess that really sums it up for you.
The fact that your fringe, outdated views don’t get enough traction to have even a single representative makes you yearn for the good ol’ days.
Meanwhile the rest of us move on.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:21 pm
That’s all you ever have you empty headed progressive stooge- the claim that it is fashionable.
So was Mussolini once.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:40 pm
Red, was Mussolini gay too ?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:47 pm
eszett, you believe in gerrymandering as long as it suits your interest just like the Greens.
They were happy to ram through the anti smacking law against the wishes of 87% of the voters at a referendum yet expect National to take notice of a referendum where the issue was in their manifesto.
You are wrong if you mean MPs when you refer to representatives. NZF supports binding referenda.
Half the MPs do not represent an electorate.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 3:53 pm
Playing The Mussolini Card just to avoid Godwin?
Vote:That reeks of desperation, red.
February 20th, 2013 at 4:01 pm
What gerrymandering, chucky? What raming through parlaiment?
Still hung up on a silly and idiotic worded referendum where nearly half the poplation did not participate?
What nonsense. National was right to pass the law, was right to ignore the results of a sham referendum. And guess what? They were confirmed by being re-elected.
Time to get over it.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:04 pm
The following is a link to the pamphlet so people can comment what is in to an not what is said to be in it.
http://www.conservativeparty.org.nz/Material/Mailers%20and%20Leaflets/Helensville%20Flyer.pdf
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:09 pm
On the one hand you want electorate MPS to do what there electorate wants, but when they do then you say they only do it because it’s fashionable.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:23 pm
There have to be limits to this referenda nostrum. For one thing, I can’t see conservative Catholics swallowing the idea of binding referenda if it means that doing so will increase the perceived “threat” of decriminalisation of voluntary euthanasia or physician assisted suicide through exactly such means. And that has already happened in the US states of Washington and Oregon, as well as almost happened in Massachusetts. Not to mention two Swiss referenda results that maintained access to assisted suicide as well as maintaining overseas European citizens access to it. If the End of Life Choices Bill is debated during this parliamentary session, watch Right to Life declare war on Family First and the Conservative Party over their short-sighted, quixotic stance on binding referenda. David is quite correct, although I suspect the crunch point will come over euthanasia law reform, not the abortion issue.
As for me, I tend to agree with the Prime Minister on this one. Referenda are expensive follies and money from taxation revenue needs to be reserved for core public health and education services. Why do so few of the binding referenda junkies ever seem to have occupied public office and engaged in resource allocation for public services?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:26 pm
Only 3 uses of the personal pronoun. Still excessive, but a great improvement on the usual narcissistic rubbish Chutney. Thanks for accepting my criticism so well.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:46 pm
Even the Colen Crags party does not support the conservonutters and their bigoted anti gay marriage debate
Is it lonely out there in conservonutter land chucks, Andrei ,redbaiter ,harry it the transsexual homophobe and the rest of you poor bigots?
No one wants your vote!
Vote:dear dear dear
You just dont count.
Poor sad unrepresented conservatives.
February 20th, 2013 at 4:49 pm
So here’s food for thought New Zealand in 1962 from the year book
79.7% of the population were nominally anyway Christian
over 60% were married which means approx 83% o the adult population
80% of all marriages were conducted in Churches
1% of the population was divorced and another 1% separated
It might seem stultifying but there were 4 convictions for murder in the New Zealand of 1962 and 3 for manslaughter 25 convictions for serious assault
New Zealand in those days was a far far safer place.
The “progressives” destruction of Faith and of marriage has come at a very very high price.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:50 pm
“Poor sad unrepresented conservatives.”
Winston does and he will get it if the Conservative Party cannot get their polling up.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:53 pm
Andrei. How are you allowing progressives to destroy your faith & marriage ?
I would have thought the preservation of those things would rest with you, not with others.
This is the simple self evident fact that you overlook when considering these social issues.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 4:55 pm
Given Colin Craig is only likely to win an electorate seat if National help him – what do his comments actually mean?
He is after all dependent on John Key for access to an electorate that opposes the legislation, or else he will have to support it.
And does he realise that he is commitng the Conservative Party party list to block vote in support of retaining the new 2013 marriage law if it is ever reviewed – on the basis of a majority of New Zealanders supporting it (as they do in polls now)?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:05 pm
The joke is what they call a conscience vote. Is their any evidence that if the MPs have a conscience that is on average superior to the peasants who put them in power.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:15 pm
“on the basis of a majority of New Zealanders supporting it (as they do in polls now)?”
If you really believed that you would not have a problem with a referendum then?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:19 pm
“what do his comments actually mean?”
His initial objective was to criticize John Key for acting outside the wishes of the Helensville electorate.
The progressive mainstream media have distorted that intent as usual and turned the criticism back on Craig.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:21 pm
How many politicians who say they support direct democracy advocated for a referendum of ratepayers on the Local Government (Auckland Reorganisation) Bill?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:22 pm
“Playing The Mussolini Card just to avoid Godwin?”
No. You under-educated Progressives are always so ignorant of history.
Mussolini was really popular and fashionable among Italy’s ruling elite.
Just like Justin Beiber is to you today.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:40 pm
Chuck, the problem is with what a referendum represents: a requirement of the majority to approve of the State staying out of people’s lives. Even if 99% of the country agreed with marriage equality, to rely on that 99% for sanction on this issue is to suggest that next week, if 99% of New Zealanders think people with green eyes or people who say “YOLO” should be locked up, then we’ll go with that too.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:41 pm
Colin Craig is a millionaire property developer.
What is HIS view and the stated policy of the Conservative Party on a Capital Gains Tax?
Penny Bright
‘Anti-corruption campaigner’
2013 Auckland Mayoral Candidate
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:43 pm
Ryan, I will respond when you post the full quote.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:45 pm
“What is HIS view and the stated policy of the Conservative Party on a Capital Gains Tax?”
What has that got to do with this thread?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:49 pm
What is HIS view and the stated policy of the Conservative Party on failure to pay rates?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 5:54 pm
Marriage ‘equality’? Those that persist on using this irrelevant slogan should tell us why ‘equality’ exists when they are not permitted to marry their sister, their cat, or both.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:15 pm
Chuck:If you really believed that you would not have a problem with a referendum then?
Only if voting was compulsory. Otherwise it may not give an accurate result.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:29 pm
Krazykiwi, has no one really told you why people aren’t permitted to marry their sister or their cat?
Try this as an experiment: what do you think someone might say as an answer to that question?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:30 pm
And Krazykiwi, if I explain to you the difference between marrying an adult human and marrying a cat, will you promise never to claim again that you don’t know the difference?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:34 pm
Chuck – you should know by now that liberal progressive polling is permitted to extrapolate any tiny self-selecting sample to testify to apparently widely held views, while anything even remotely conservative, or worse, smelling of judeo-Christian values, is bagged with objections like the one chiz just made.
chiz – perhaps you could answer my question of 5:54. When, in your mind, will ‘equality’ exist?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:36 pm
Amazing, he just prostituted himself to his Electorate. Who would buy a used car from this man?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:40 pm
ryan – where did I claim to not know the difference? You’re making stuff up.
So let me get this right: According to those who cling to the ‘equality’ justification, equality doesn’t exist now. It will magically come into existence when gays can ‘marry’. And this newly-minted equality will still exist despite the state limiting your choice of marriage partner – right?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:41 pm
Craig said one thing in the Herald article that no-one has mentioned above, and it’s critical. The gay marriage bill also opens the door to gay adoptions.
You know what? That changes the equation completely and if people knew that: i.e. if the MPs told them, opinion against gay marriage would run at least 70/30 against. Guarantee it.
But they don’t talk about that, do they. Quiet as a mouse, aren’t they.
This is what I really hate about politics as it is practised. The disingenuous tactics used, not just in this but in many things, whereby only once the bill passes and it’s all too late, only then is the real agenda revealed.
It makes me wonder about MPs who adopt this tactic and this includes almost all of them: who the fuck do they think they are. This is not their democracy, it’s ours. And how can they possibly claim any moral high ground whatsoever, when they do shit like this? And yet, they do (claim the moral high ground). Which goes way beyond mere disingenuity and crosses into hypocrisy, doesn’t it.
A-holes.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:42 pm
kk – Polling companies that produce unreliable results will go out of business. They go to a lot of trouble to eliminate bias and they do not extrapolate from self-selecting samples as you claim. Referenda on the other hand are not as reliable. A minority, who are vocal and het up may vote in large proportions, but a majority, who aren’t as passionate, may not vote in the same proportions thereby skewing the results.
As for your second question, perhaps you could stop equivocating.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:46 pm
Correct.
With regards to the State implicitly advocating one kind of relationship between consenting adults over another, yes.
Correct. Just as the value of equality in recognising interracial marriages in the States was not undermined by the lack of cat-marrying.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:54 pm
Skin colour never had any bearing on what marriage meant and was always an incorrect distinction.
Two men getting married is not the same as a man and woman of colour getting married, and its laughable to claim it is.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:56 pm
It had a bearing on what marriage meant for the people opposed to interracial marriage.
If that’s what you think, Redbaiter, then don’t marry another man. But in the meantime, stop advocating that the Nanny State tells everyone else how they should live their lives.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 6:58 pm
Sigh. Here we go again. No it doesn’t.
A gay man (or a lesbian woman) already can adopt a child. And it already happens under NZ law. But a gay (or lesbian) couple cannot jointly adopt a child, meaning that in cases where a child has been born to one of that couple using a surrogate (or donor sperm), the other half of that couple is left without parental rights over the child even though he or she is in fact serving a parental role. Which makes no sense from a legal or moral perspective.
So what Colin Craig (and Reid) is trying to wave is the “scarey” flag of gay (or lesbian) couples being able to “stranger adopt” – that is, have a child placed with them by CYFS and have a joint adoption order made by the courts (which only married couples can get). Three things to note about this:
(1) Such placements are only made with the active consent of the child’s biological mother (and biological father, if he’s in the picture). That is to say, before any gay (or lesbian) couple were able to “stranger adopt”, that child’s birthmum (and maybe birthdad) would have to positively agree to the child being placed with and raised by that couple.
(2) Such placements are only confirmed by the Family Court (and an adoption order made) if it is “in the best interests of the child” for such to happen.
(3) There were only a little over 50 (yes, that’s right, 50) such “stranger adoptions” in NZ last year.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:05 pm
“The problem with living in a “secular” country is of course that there is absolutely no moral reference to lay the foundation of what is good, or right, or even sensible.”
Andrei supports the stoning of disobedient children and the killing of all those who do the slightest work on the Sabbath. And don’t get him started about mixing different types of fabrics.
And we shall take our slaves from Australia.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:14 pm
And Ryan Sproull demonstrates just how moronic so called progressives really are.
There is a fundamental difference between a procreative male/female pairing and one composed of two individuals of the same gender.
This is the way God and nature have designed it.
Anyway who gives a shit, you morons are part of a dying civilization and you are too fucking stupid to see it – a degenerate bunch who edeserve to be overwhelemed and overwhelmed you will be – I give you twenty years at most.
And good fucking riddence – you have the crime of mass murder of your infants to answer for and this absolute evil, this crime gainst humanity will cost you dear
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:19 pm
I prewsume you are also a part of this supposed dying civilisation Andrei. If so you are as responsible for what is happening as anyone else. Have you ever considered that your approach may not be working?
Or do you just blame it on other people?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:24 pm
As usual PG doesn’t have a clue what is being discussed.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:31 pm
The argument about the state staying out of people’s lives by allowing gay marriage is surely bogus. Marriage is a natural pairing of a man and woman that existed before the state. Before government, before even kings there was marriage. First mentioned in the Bible with the pairing of the first two human beings, Adam and Eve.
Vote:Gay marriage in contrast is purely a creation of the state. So it represents a relatively small number of gay activists using the power of the state to impose homosexuality as worthy of the status of marriage. So it is an excellent example of the state interfering in people’s lives.
It will require heaps of legislation changes and will inevitably lead to persecution of conservatives and Christians by the state. But when pastors go to jail and churches are fined out of existence for not allowing gay marriage on their premises no doubt many on this thread will congratulate themselves on how wonderful it is that the state is not intruding in people’s lives.
February 20th, 2013 at 7:32 pm
Quoting Burke is complete bullshit with respect to NZ in 2013.
Vote:The first and foremost duty of an MP is allegiance to the reigning sovereign of NZ.
The first and foremost duty of a member of Cabinet is good counsel to the reigning sovereign of NZ in NZ’s national interest and to maintain Cabinet confidentiality.
Their conscience or their local electorate wishes (if they even have one, List MP’s don’t, isnt MMP great) are subordinate.
February 20th, 2013 at 7:41 pm
We should add slavery to the list of venerable institutions which the state should enforce, shouldn’t we Scott. Because, er, it’s old.
And treating women as chattels. I’m sure that goes without saying.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:45 pm
Pete George I walked the walk and bought up four kids and invested nearly thirty years of my life and most of my substance in the process.
And they were bought up not to fuck anything that moves, anywhere it takes their fancy, to see abortion as the horror it is and to cross themselves from right to left with three fingers.
I don’t know where you think the next generation of New Zealanders is going to come from and who is going to raise them, my kids will be raising theirs elsewhere so I guess it will be up to Chris Kahui and his progeny to pick up the baton and build the Nation.
How well d’ya think that’s going to work out?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 7:53 pm
Translation: For completely selfish reasons Andrei had a family.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 8:02 pm
Technically, humans didn’t turn up until the advent of Rome (Cicero’s homo humanus). The story of Adam and Eve is about a man and his wife.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 8:06 pm
“What is HIS view and the stated policy of the Conservative Party on a Capital Gains Tax?”
You have demonstrated by the above comment why the likes of should not be allow truphy children.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 8:11 pm
Correction
“Translation: For completely selfish reasons Andrei had a family.”
You have demonstrated by the above comment why the likes of should not be allow truphy children.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 8:34 pm
“and to cross themselves from right to left with three fingers”
So you brainwashed your kids in other words.
Pity you did not let them decide for themselves, if they are smart kids (and I have no reason to assume they are anything but smart) they would have been able to tell you that there is no such thing as God and that the religion you follow is the epitome of evil.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 8:41 pm
Wat my dear chap, my point is that the state is inventing gay marriage and is an example of government interference in an institution that preceded the state and government.
Vote:Leaving marriage alone is an example of the state not interfering in people’s lives.
I’m not sure what slavery has to do with this issue, unless of course you feel marriage and slavery somehow go together
February 20th, 2013 at 8:50 pm
Andrei.
Yes. There’s also a fundamental difference between a same-race couple and one composed of two individuals of different race. What was your point again?
Ohhhh. You think your religious beliefs should be imposed on everyone. Sorry, bud. This is a liberal democracy. Saudi Arabia is down the road.
You’re too kind. And look how respectful and mature!
I’ve never mass murdered even a single infant, dear.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:03 pm
What do you mean ‘if the electorate wanted abortion on demand?” We already have abortion on demand.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:15 pm
Scott,
The point being that the venerability of an institution is completely irrelevent and tells us nothing about its morality or worth.
If the role of the state is simply to enforce and rubber stamp ancient customs then let’s bring back pogroms, bear-baiting and droit de seigneur.
A secular, democratic state based on individual liberty must no more enforce Christian bigotry then it would Muslim bigotry. The is particularly true since all so-called Christians and Muslims are raknk hypocrites.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:18 pm
So secularists like you Wat are never hypocrites right?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:20 pm
A good read on this: http://www.spectator.co.uk/australia/australia-features/8845371/the-new-pc/
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:21 pm
Anyone can be a hypocrite Red. You should know, that’s one thing you’re an expert at.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:26 pm
Ryan, you’re talking bullshit again ! Equality means equal, so one should equally be able to marry one’s sister, mother, father, or all of the above to be truly equal. It is a dishonest argument in the extreme to claim that “equality” means only SOME things can be called equal. You might like to think that to extend the equality banner to incest is a step too far now, and that’s probably right, but that’s your (and the gay marriage proponents) argument framing.
And we already have marriage equality, everyone can marry exactly the same as everyone else.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:28 pm
Can you describe the nature of this alleged hypocrisy, wat dabney?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:30 pm
There is a certain absurdity to certain arguments.
One is the proposition that western christendom needs the help of the gay community – where each homosexual man and each lesbian woman marry each other in a church – to help us outbreed the non Christians of the planet, or otherwise our civilisation is doomed.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:45 pm
Thanks for that link Manolo. You’re right. A good read.
One thing about Australia, it has a real right wing political force (Not the Liberal party, as infested with cowards and traitors as National, the Republicans and the UK Conservatives) within society, unlike NZ which is almost extreme left wall to wall.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:51 pm
Ed Snack, two questions:
1. Was ending a ban on interracial marriage in the US a move towards equality?
Vote:2. If so, could that still be called equality while there were still other restrictions on marriage?
3. If not, what would you call the value that motivated that move?
February 20th, 2013 at 9:53 pm
Wat, my point was in response to the view that people who oppose gay marriage are statists who are promoting government interference in people’s lives. My point is that marriage is not an invention of the state and existed before the state. Gay marriage is an invention of the state and would not exist without major government legislation. So the people who are for gay marriage are the ones promoting government interference in people’s lives.
Your point about secular liberal democracy should not promote religious values is an invention of your own choosing and seems to represent your own preferences. Who says our country should be secular? Helen Clarke? You?
What about all those people who are Christian in this country? Don’t they have a say?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:55 pm
As far as politicians representing their electorate etc, does anyone remember John Key saying this in regards to legalizing prostitution? –
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/john-key-the-unauthorised-biography/news/article.cfm?c_id=1502247&objectid=10523315
Of course, that all changed when things like the Smacking Law came around. Even when there was a referendum that showed clearly that the majority of the people were against the changes to smacking, Key wouldn’t budge on the idea. Wouldn’t change a thing: not even considering the Boscawen amendment. So much for the will of the people now.
Hypocrisy at it’s finest; almost quoting Burke, then doing a flip-flop.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 9:59 pm
Or, I meant to say, not agreeing with Burke, then changing his mind….
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:01 pm
http://riseupaustraliaparty.com/
http://asiancorrespondent.com/97560/australian-politician-calls-to-ban-muslim-immigration/
RUAP already boasts about 1,500 members and plans to field 65 candidates in the upcoming federal election slated in September.
RUAP is fighting against multiculturalism, gays and lesbians, abortion, carbon tax, asylum seekers, and other left-wing issues.
Nalliah said multiculturalism is assimilating the “silent majority” to accept minority culture. This, he said, has never worked in many countries in the West. He declared “Australia for Australians” to the cheers and uproar of supporters at the National Press Club in Canberra.
Supported by UK-born climate sceptic Lord Christopher Monckton, RUAP has also launched the Victoria State Campaign on September 16.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:13 pm
They have as much say as anyone else. And there will no doubt be a wide variety of Christian says.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:35 pm
ps, good points Urban Redneck @12.39pm and @1pm- as good an argument as there is.
They want to redefine marriage, not just in terms of who can participate in it, but also the very definition in terms of fidelity and being faithful to one person. We’ve already seen the confusion around the subject of adultery if gay marriage were taken up.
If gay marriage laws are passed then marriage won’t mean what it does now. Homosexuals will overlay their philosophies and lifestyles on top of it – things that are not compatible with the traditional institution of marriage – and change its very meaning.
Thus, the very thing they say they want will not have its original value or meaning any more.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:45 pm
The State isn’t magic, Fletch. My marriage isn’t going to mean anything different after gay couples can marry than it does now.
Can you explain further just what’s going to happen to my marriage to my female adult wife when gay adult marriages are recognised by the State? Will I feel different when I wake up that morning? Will oaths be worn down to 60%? Will I love her less, Fletch? Is that what’s going to happen?
Lay it out for me.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:47 pm
LOL – New Zealand was a Christian country 50 years ago, it was a given our laws were based upon Christian morality. Gradually this has been surrendered as the marxists who are too dumb to realize for the most part that they are following Marx have done their thing
Biggest irony of my life is the interchange between the East which was godless when I was born and the West which was Christian and how that has flipped.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:50 pm
Is it a Christian country or a democracy, Andrei? It can’t be both, so pick which one you want. The Christian equivalent of Sharia Law, or freedom from one religion being imposed on everyone regardless of their own creed or lack thereof.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 10:55 pm
Of course it can be both, the two things compliment one another.
If the politicians get out of line in a sensible Nation, the bishops can call them to order. This is why politicians have undermined the church, they hate not having a monopoly on the peoples souls and want to be the sole arbiters of what is right and wrong
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 11:32 pm
What?
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 11:38 pm
Another absurdity is in the use the use of the term East to refer to Russia, as if the world is either Europe or the people of European ancestry and culture.
Vote:February 20th, 2013 at 11:58 pm
Another absurdity is the claim that marriage took place with the first couple of humans – and thus preceded government (if so also preceding religion)
1. there would have been no one to marry them, they were a de facto couple.
2. human institutions afterwards formalised marriage – parents wanted people found naked with their children to commit to being partners to them or else. These institutions were part of the origin of both religion and government.
I want even go into the claim of first couple as recent as 6000 years ago, or mention the complexity of homo sapien emergence via evolution and determining a time for a first couple.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:11 am
Ryan, of course it changes marriage. How can you be so incapable of foresight?
If it weren’t going to change then why would gay activists say –
That doesn’t sound like marriage not “meaning anything different”?
As one gay points out on his blog ‘Gays Against Gay Marriage” –
http://nogaymarriage.wordpress.com/
“Ceremonial jealously”. That’s a good way to put it.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:29 am
Fletch,
The fear of some (single men clubbers) gays of commited relationship is expressed in their fear of the right to marry. But it is not an argument against it.
The argument is similar to the one made for priestly celibacy – so they can focus on the church (single men clubbers just want to focus on being promiscuous, career women on their career etc). Sure some gay men have used their earlier criminalisation and continued inability to marry to pretend that their promiscuity was freedom fighting or part of some revolutionary challenge to the establishment – so they now fear acceptance may force them to grow up.
And bi-sexual women, those with an open marriage and those in polyamorous arrangments, have always been at the vanguard of challenging patriarchal supremacism. Aided and abetted by their lesbian handmaidens.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:49 am
Scott – are people who are for gay marriage really the ones promoting government interference in people’s lives? Being offended that other people can marry is not an inteference in your life or anyone else’s.
And when you say that Christians should be able to act to impose another order on society than the secular one, you further undermine any point you may have been trying to make.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 5:05 am
The more I see of this guy the less I like him. His whole schtick was moral conservatism, and now he is basically saying he is prepared to sell that out if enough people disagree with him!
Are there seriously any people on the Right still defending him? The man is a massive fraud! He’s a white Christian Winston Peters, and there is nothing right wing about him.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 8:03 am
I will be voting one of them – Craig or Peters
In a democracy moral issues that were not in a major parties manifesto should be decided by a referendum not by small fanatic pressure groups be they homosexual of religious.
The alternative would be to put an end to private members bills. Party policies should be in a parties manifesto.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 9:48 am
Pulling a quote from some random author doesn’t answer my question.
You think straight marriages will be changed by same-sex marriages being legally recognised.
Tell me how. I don’t care whether or not some gay activist thinks that marriage should change. I want you to explain how straight marriages will change.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 10:52 am
The site also, helpfully, has a list –
http://carm.org/gay-marriage-harm
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 10:58 am
Here’s another list in PDF form that makes some very valid points.
You can read more explanations of each point in the PDF HERE
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:01 am
How fascinating. No one’s mentioned the relevance of euthanasia law reform to this whole referenda argument. Would the conservative Catholics here vote for either New Zealand First or the Conservatives if they maintained their current binding referenda obsession, which would therefore threaten to decriminalise euthanasia through plebiscite, manifestly against their wishes? How much longer are they going to maintain this fiction of a ‘gentlemen’s agreement’ over opposition to marriage equality? Methinks I see a large religious wedge in the intermediate future…
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:04 am
Just like a lack of racial discrimination causes harm by exposing families to the stress of being sued if they refuse to rent a room to someone of a particular race they don’t like.
Gay marriage will have no effect on the amount of homosexual sex occurring.
The examples there are of preventing direct harm by one person to another’s person or property. Legal equality of same-sex couples by legally recognising their marriages does not cause harm, and is not forcing morals on people. You can have anti-homosexual morals, or anti-Japanese morals, or whatever morals you like. Gay marriage doesn’t stop you.
No one is forcing you to watch or read those movies, TV shows or books.
Gay marriage does not mean a redefinition of sexual morality.
Gay marriage does not reduce the number of children born in society.
Diddums. No one is forcing people to change their spiritual or religious views. You can have whatever anti-gay, anti-race, anti-whatever religious beliefs – you just can’t use the machinery of the State to impose them on others.
No, it isn’t.
Same thing happened when interracial marriages started being recognised by employers.
Finger’s pointing in the wrong direction there, bud.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:04 am
Fletch, must your side of the debate slavishly imitate everything the US Christian Right say or do? Probably, given that it provides you lot with your chief propaganda fix, as well as tactics and strategy. Worked that one out a long time ago. Useful in pre-empting it.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:10 am
Yes, just as they are forced to subsidize heterosexual relationships.
Schools would teach that homosexual marriages are legally equal to heterosexual ones.
Nonsense.
More people would marry.
No, they wouldn’t.
It’s really none of your business why other people get divorced.
Nonsense. Nothing about gay marriage stops straight couples getting married.
Hm, perhaps technically, if significantly more gay female couples adopted kids. On the other hand, more kids would be growing up with two married parents.
Nonsense. Gay marriage doesn’t stop straight couples from having kids.
Demand away. The question of polygamy is separate and would have to be judged as such.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:11 am
CG, given that arguments for an against gay marriage are universal, must your side imitate everything the US Liberal Left says? I thought so.
Vote:Truth is Truth no matter what country you come from; it’s universal, and so are arguments for and against gay marriage.
February 21st, 2013 at 11:14 am
I think Fletch is right that there’s nothing inherently inappropriate about applying gay marriage arguments in the US to the New Zealand context. They’re similar in all of the relevant ways.
The arguments Fletch has quoted are all ridiculous, of course, but no less or more ridiculous here than in the US.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:17 am
Ryan, again – you have no foresight and your rebuttals are simplistic.
One only has to look at what the Pope of the time said 40 years ago would happen as regards contraception. They probably said he was wrong as well, but what he said has pretty much come to pass.
Pope Paul VI predicted that:
1. Contraception would lead to conjugal infidelity.
2. Contraceptive practice would lead to a “general lowering of morality.”
3. Contraception would lead men to cease respecting woman in their totality and would cause them to treat women as “mere instruments of selfish enjoyment” rather than as cherished partners.
4. And finally, widespread acceptance of contraception by couples would lead to a massive imposition of contraception by unscrupulous governments.
All has come to pass.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:21 am
1. Conjugal infidelity is not contraception’s fault, it’s infidelity’s fault.
Vote:2. “General lowering of morality” implies that one religion’s morality should be used as the measure for morality of a whole society, and we live in a liberal democracy, not Saudi Arabia.
3. That was going on long before contraception.
4. Widespread acceptance of contraception by couples has no bearing on what an unscrupulous government will do.
February 21st, 2013 at 11:22 am
Simplistic arguments don’t need anything more than a simple rebuttal.
But at least, you’ll note, I provided rebuttals, rather than a vague blanket statement about being simplistic.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 11:28 am
BlairM- “Are there seriously any people on the Right still defending him? The man is a massive fraud! He’s a white Christian Winston Peters, and there is nothing right wing about him.”
So go vote to empower the Maori party then. They’re a bunch of straight shooters right?
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:11 pm
Thanks for those good arguments fletch. Having done so in the past, I can only suggest to you that arguing with Ryan is not a good use of one’s time. He was a Christian but is now in apostasy and argues against everything he believed in the past. However his arguments appear to be “no it doesn’t”. Simple assertions with no basis than his own opinion.
A couple of thoughts – the argument about what that will do to one’s own marriage is based on the premise – people should be able to do whatever they like as long as it does not hurt anyone else. However from the Conservative point of view we would not agree with that premise. Society is an organism. People are connected together like a body – in marriage, in families and in community. Therefore the moral decline in the status of marriage affects everybody. So compared to 60 years ago we have a very high crime rate. One of the reasons is that young men do not have a father figure at home to teach them right from wrong and how to use their strength responsibly to look after those weaker than themselves. This is a direct result of the move away from marriage to families often based on a solo mother trying to be mum and dad.
Secondly gay marriage will almost certainly result over time in an increase in homosexual activity. Ryan denies this. But I would imagine gay activists would welcome more people becoming homosexual as homosexuality becomes a mainstream activity blessed with the union of marriage. One can see in ancient Greece where men got married to a woman who had the children. But the real object of their affection and love was a boy. And when I say boy I do mean boy. So homosexuality was almost universal amongst the cultural elite.
Given the example of ancient Greece if gay marriage goes through in New Zealand then homosexuality will become more accepted and we would expect homosexual activity to increase. We would expect more people to practice homosexuality. And I am sure that gay activists would expect that too.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:21 pm
I said a lot more than “No, it doesn’t,” Scott. Please either read more carefully or don’t lie.
I did say “No, it doesn’t” a few times. Let’s take that to mean, “Why on earth would you think that?” For example, Fletch claims that gay marriage will lead to more gay sex which will lead to more sexually transmitted disease. I agree that more gay sex will lead to more sexually transmitted disease, just as more of any sex will lead to more sexually transmitted disease. But I don’t see why Fletch thinks that legal recognition of gay marriage will result in more gay sex.
The problem, Scott, is that you’re assuming your own measure of what constitutes “moral decline” should apply to everyone. And everyone else has their own measures of what constitutes morality and moral decline. That’s why we do go with “people should be able to do whatever they like as long as it does not hurt anyone else”. Taking that as a first principle creates a space in our society where everyone can pursue their own conception of the good. You can pursue yours. Others can pursue theirs.
You’re assuming that legal recognition of gay marriage will make more people gay, then? And then a slippery slope to paedophilia? I disagree with both, but for the former, it doesn’t matter. It’s not your business if someone else is gay. If you think gay love and gay sex are wrong, don’t fall in love with another man and don’t have sex with another man. For the latter, I disagree with your slippery slope. Legal recognition of same-sex marriages does not necessitate a lowering of the age of consent.
“Given the example of ancient Greece”, though? Really? Anyway, it’s still none of your business what other grown consenting adults do, and it’s irrelevant to the question of the State implicitly making these kinds of value judgements by calling straight couples one thing and same-sex couples another.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:30 pm
And Scott, I don’t disagree with a lot of what you’re saying here. I just don’t think that using the machinery of the State to impose your values on everyone is the way to go about it. If you can do that, others can too, and how you live becomes subject to the whims of the majority. Spread your message, try to convince people you’re right and that they should live the way you think they should, but don’t use the machinery of the State to do it.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 12:43 pm
Ryan, this is actually why I came onto this thread in the 1st place. The machinery of the state is being used to establish gay marriage. That is a fact.
Marriage existed before the State, before there were even kings and queens. When Abraham married Sarah there were no government officials or even nation states. So marriage preceded the state.
Gay activists are demanding that the state create gay marriage, which did not exist before. So you have it completely about-face. It is the other side using the machinery of the state to impose their morality, their view that it is right for a man and a man to marry, on society. Marriage between a man and a woman did not require the state to make it come into being. Gay marriage is purely an invention of the state.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 1:04 pm
ChardonnayGuy (396) Says:
February 21st, 2013 at 11:01 am
CG has a good point. The issue in the Herald article was about Colin Craig’s idea of democracy. There well be some conservatives Christian or not who only call for a binding referendum when it suits them. However, this sort of hypocrisy would be far more common from the left.
Just look at then calling for a referendum on any issue which way a major issue in the election. National was very clear on their policy regarding partial asset sales.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 1:06 pm
Ideally, Scott, I’d like to see the Marriage Act removed entirely. People can get married, it’s no business of the State’s. But if we are going to have a State-legislated marriage, it should not discriminate on the basis of one group of people’s ideas about how everyone should live.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 2:04 pm
Liberals are busily destroying the country, and the populace has been so effectively brainwashed over the last 30 or so years that there seems little hope of stopping what’s happening. Depressing but undeniable.
It’s amazing to see how much stupidity and idiocy is being paraded by the liberals posting in this thread.
Keep up the good work Andrei, Lucia, Harriet and others – don’t let the evil go unchallenged.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 3:00 pm
Colin Craig needs to be a man of principle if I’m to vote for him, not a mealy-mouthed people-pleaser like Key.
I can respect even evil liberals for nailing their colours to the flag and being predictable in what they will and won’t support.
The idea of voting for people who may slither and wriggle in any direction afterward is ghastly.
The private lives of politicians are OF COURSE incredibly important e.g. Shane Jones and his disgusting ‘private’ behaviour (lying, pornography, disrespecting his wife in the process) should have been a far bigger deal than it was, because of what it reveals about the creep.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 3:17 pm
smallgovernment, I think I agree with you. Like Colin you would have to clarify a little more. I do not think we can turn the clock back 40 or 50 years when if an MP was found to have an affair it could seriously affect his future. Mind you some of them did but they had a cozy arrangement with the Opposition and the press so the public did not get to hear.
I am disappointed Colin has not been prepared to debate the issues on this forum. He could do with the practice. He will have more challenges if he does get to be an MP.
It is a fair question if his policy would apply to abortion and euthanasia like he says it would for homosexual abortion and homosexual adoption.
My vote is going to a party that supports binding referenda on moral issues and has a realistic chance of getting into Parliament.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 4:00 pm
The claim that marriage preceded government is spurious.
In the beginning there were de facto relationships.
Marriage was created by society to formalise these relationships – generally because of property (inheritance) rights (there is also the issue of parent and control of the estate – the son’s partner would breed the grandchildren and the daughter could be leveraged to form inter-family alliances (protecting their property from others).
If one defines that of the culture/society that formalises de facto pairings as marriages, as not of government, then who recognised related property rights?
The reason marriage was heterosexual (and other rellationships were not formalised) was because of the nature of the link between procreation and inheritance of property.
In any case marriage/relationship property law is now a creature of government and civil union/same sex de facto partners have relationship issues so modernising the formal institution is a legal matter and now a political formality. The future is not a black President of the USA it is with a woman as President and her first lady.
Vote:February 21st, 2013 at 8:47 pm
SPC my dear chap. One is entitled to one’s opinion, one is not entitled to one’s own facts. In the beginning there were de facto relationships and then came marriage is nonsense. Provide lots of evidence please or immediately withdraw your statement.
Vote:For your information marriage occurs in the Bible with married couples like Abraham and Sarah who lived around 1800BC.
The ancient Egyptian Pharaohs had wives etc, etc. The evidence for marriage in ancient times and not de facto relationships is so overwhelming that to suggest otherwise is simply not rational.
February 22nd, 2013 at 12:25 am
Scott, another Christian who sneers via their condescending tone? I have demonstrated why your claim that marriage preceded government is logically invalid. Don’t like it, tough. The truth is not going anywhere.
De facto partnerships preceded marriages. Marriages required the development of public institution/collective recognition of individual property rights/government.
1. You claimed marriage preceded government – there is no evidence for this.
2. For marriage to exist, requires the capability to recognise their lawful validity (as distinct from just cohabiting) – that requires government/society collective.
3. Initial cohabitation has to have been de facto – via subsequent area procreation a collective can develop. Then cohabitations can be formalised, this as property rights are being developed to differentiate ownership in that community.
For your information – government existed in the world before the Pharoahs (shortly after 3000BCE). People were getting married at Jericho Canaan pre 5000BCE. It has existed since there was fixed settlement c10,000BCE – time of cultivation of crops and domestication of flocks. It probably occured within governance/public ceremony of hunter gather groups leaving Africa around 60-50,000BCE. But those forming their own group coupling up and having descendants were de facto (no one to perform the ceremony or to preside over the cultural norm/law of this obligation – from dowry to divorce arrangments). Those forming new settlements or hunter gatherer groups as a couple living in a new area would have been either runaways or survivors. The bible refers to Adam and Eve as runaways/outcasts and Noah as a survivor.
As for your dating of Abraham and Sarah – it is not biblical. But it is closer to the facts than the date given for the first couple.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 1:00 am
Or to dumb it down for Christians like Scott
In the beginning
1. who married the first couple – if you say someone not of humanity, then it is not a human insititution
OMG … you are claiming your God controls the institution and not human government. When did the unchanging God decide that men had to stop marrying close relatives (age of Moses?), stop marrying their wives sisters (age of Moses, after Jacob married Leah and Rachel), that polygamy was wrong (NT for Christians and 1000CE for Jews and Moslems still do it where allowed), not allow divorced people to remarry (NT for Christians). So if “God” keeps changing the rules for marriage, what makes anyone so sure that an unchanging God has been involved in making and presiding over the marriage bed insititution, rather than human governance?
2. when homo erectus evolved into homo sapiens were there really just two?
WTF has the existence of marriage in Egypt got to do with evidence for marriage preceding the emergence of government – they had government in Egypt, they even had modern marriage law for divorce – a property share to the wife.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 7:44 am
On the point of biblical dating (ignoring the real life spans of people and certain anthropoligical factors such as a cycle of patriarchs with the same name).
The Jewish calender began 3761BCE. Counting the bible account from that time delivers a Terah born in 1883BCE and Abraham born in 1753BCE. Thus the period of his life in Canaan, age 75-175, would have been from 1678-1578BCE.
I suppose those using Christian Ussher dates for “Adam” c4000BCE presume they can recount that time back 240 years (thus Abraham age 75-175 in 1918-1818BCE). Coincidently the Hebrew alphabet count for the letters R (200) and M (40) is 240. I guess Ussher spoke and wrote in the Latin of RoMe.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 4:17 pm
SPC, your point is that before marriage was de facto relationships. My point is that marriage is very ancient, which you then agree with as you give the example of Jericho Cannan in 5000BC. However the rest of your argument is based on speculation about how societies must have evolved. There is no historical evidence for your claim. It is merely evolutionary speculation.
That was my point. The reference to marriage existing before governments, I need to be more precise. I am saying government in the sense of nation states. Abraham and Sarah lived in an age of tribes and extended family groups, similar to NZ Maori, who incidentally also had marriage and not de facto relationships.
So in the beginning were de facto relationships lacks historical evidence. Lastly I would respectfully suggest you abandon evolution as a first principle. It offers little explanatory value and I actually think it is not true. Creation makes a lot more sense. Finally I wasn’t sneering, I was simply vigorously disagreeing with your argument.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 6:50 pm
SPC, your own attempts at condescension are nauseating.
Chuck Bird, hanging your hat on binding referenda is doing the same thing Craig is. I want someone who will nail his colours to the mast, and behave consistently and predictably. A politician shouldn’t be a funnel for the vagaries of popular opinion, he should be his own man and have strong principles so voters can make a choice confident in his integrity.
Politicians like this are obviously a very rare breed. Ron Paul seemed to be although too libertarian for my liking.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 7:10 pm
So does in the beginning there was marriage. And there must have been coupling of humans before marriage at some stage back in history, so ‘de facto’ first is really the only practical possibility.
Evolution of humans and human communities and societies with eventually enough thought and communication to form some sort of “marriage” like relationships makes far more sense.
In fact ‘suddenly marriage being created’ before any other type of relationship makes no sense at all.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 8:13 pm
Have to agree to disagree Pete my old stick. First two human beings created by God and married by God. I know descending from apes, millions of years, all that sort of thing is fashionable but I just think it’s all bollocks really. The de facto relationships precedes marriage idea is a product of evolutionary speculation and doesn’t have any actual historical data to back it up.
Vote:I just don’t know why people abandon faith in God to embrace evolution and consequently atheism. It’s a terrible world view to live by. No hope, no purpose, no love, just blind pitiless indifference.
By the way Pete, when you die, which way are you going to go? Up or down?
February 22nd, 2013 at 9:11 pm
Scott, you think the onus to provide evidence is with the other side in this debate. I guess the rationale is the position asserted as the one of faith is only credibly done in the absence of evidence to the contrary. And while those of faith can hope to get away with this, this will continue.
Thus you expect others to have to prove their position or withdraw their dissenting statements – such as the more recent one, withdraw from evolution as a first (evidential) principle in this matter. Asked for, thus with less menace than during the Inquisition, as it must be in modern secular society (Darwin feared prison for releasing his first book on evolution). This is unsurprising from those who would exploit God to position their faith in dominance of society. I will simply note this is why modern society is rejecting God religion (if not God).
I suppose some people believe that others are supposed to be directed and instructed by them – in fact they see it as part of their duty in their work of faith. Being in a positon of authority over others in religion does this to some people. But it is not advantageous in public debate, and probably has disenchanted people change churches as well.
We should cut to the chase, those who claim marriage preceded government only do so because they are seeking (desperately need) secular support for their religious based opposition to marriage law reform. They want support from right wingers against nanny state government. The attempt is to claim marriage as an institution that is accountable to something both before and greater than government. Thus form an alliance between those who claim this is God and those who claim it is the people, all of a design to block liberal change by government legislation.
I find it amusing that religious people taking this approach are thus not prepared to say what they believe that God ordained marriage for the first couple and thus marriage is of God and a ritual of religion. Possibly because marriage tests for religious marriage in a church and a civil ceremony are already different (remarriage of dovorced people etc). So one more change means little. I did outline earlier the many changes to marriage law that occured within biblical religion, so change by man is a long standing practice within Judeo-Christian tradition.
I will say, the bible word (of and about God and man in faith relationship) says God gave man dominion on Earth – governance that clearly included the marriage bed. Man then acting on knowledge of good and evil governed the rules of the marriage bed.
We are born mortal and as for Romans and who is deserving of death, Jesus simply said men should stop presuming to be worthy of determining this – whether in Galilee streets or anywhere else. We die soon enough, we should simpy love each other and let live.
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-1200486/The-Genesis-enigma-How-DID-Bible-evolution-life-3-000-years-Darwin.html
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 9:23 pm
Down obviously. Just as well accepted as evolution is something called gravity. I’ll be sprinkled back to the earth. Recycled nature.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 9:30 pm
Scott,
1. there is no evidence for a period when there were only two human beings alive – there is for evolution (out of earlier homo erectus) and homo sapien existence for over 150,000 years and nearly 100,000 for homo sapien sapiens.
2. the only theory of a first couple that co-exists with evolution is ancient astronaut DNA. But there is no evidence.
3. the de facto relationships precedes marriage idea is a product of our awareness of anthropology (way group culture is formed and develops).
The idea that faith in God cannot coincide with respect for historical fact is the real problem for God religion today and why people abandon it, but not God.
Slander of those who no longer belief in the religious myth created by men, in their knowledge of good and evil creating a god in their own image, as people without hope, purpose or love – only pitiless indifference, is unsurprising. Threatening unbelievers with a place down below is the practice of all authoritarian cults when their nakedness is exposed. The Inquisition made it manifest by burning people on crosses – now that was pitiless indifference to human life.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 9:48 pm
We all start as atheists. Some are taught about God as children, and some of those subsequently revise their beliefs. Others remain as atheists or move to some hybrid view.
That’s extremely arrogant and extremely offensive directed at anyone you deem doesn’t meet your standards. Standards that appear to be very low by what you have said here.
And it’s this sort of wretched attitude that is the cause many moderate and reasonable people who have a faith in a god to be given a hard time, tainted by the nonsense espoused by a few extreme intolerants.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 10:06 pm
Pete, to say we ‘start as atheists’ is idiocy. We start life knowing nothing (although I believe we have a spiritual nature) and are taught – by our parents if they are worth their salt.
SPC, I’d say the onus is on you to make sure that your lack of belief in God is not going to have you end up in hell. You call that a threat (which is ridiculous, because I’m not creating the consequences) – I call it a warning or maybe an excellent reason to seek God to see if there really is something to Christianity.
Many of the atheists here think themselves very clever and look down their noses at Christians. When I read CS Lewis’ Mere Christianity and realised he was smarter than me by a long shot and 50 years ago had addressed all of my essentially schoolboy objections to Christianity, I was able to set them aside temporarily and actually seek God myself (and fortunately, find Him).
The are ‘Old Earth’ Christians, by the way, and many (like me) who have no problem with the possibility that evolution was central in creating the world we have today. However, I diverge from ‘evolutionists’ in believing that whatever the mechanism, God set everything in motion.
Silly academic objections or logical arguments are a poor substitute for seeking an actual experience of God by reading the Bible and praying.
Vote:February 22nd, 2013 at 10:32 pm
smallgovernment, abandonment of God religion is not atheism, it is a rejection of the claims of men who build religion by claiming to have knowledge of God. Deism is honesty first.
Vote: