Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has proposed a legal ‘conscience clause’ whereby allowing people of faith to express objections to same sex marriage without breaking the law.
The Archbishop’s comments have been welcomed by people of faith across the spectrum. What the Archbishop is proposing is very similar to the ‘conscience clause’ being proposed in Northern Ireland at the moment by the DUP.
The proposed Northern Irish legislation is being backed by all of the Churches and the Unionist Party, Sinn Fein and the Northern Irish homosexual campaign group ‘QueerSpace’ however are opposing this freedom of conscience clause.
The clause that Archbishop Martin is proposing, would essentially mean that businesses could refuse to serve customers who demand a service with a political or ideological dimension to it which clashes with the conscientious beliefs of the service provider EG the same principle would be: A Neo-Nazi asking for a cake to commemorate Adolf Hitler’s birthday from a Jewish bakery.