Lord Carey rants about marriage but agrees with the merits of a corporate GMail account with PinkNews reader
The former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey has ranted by email that marriage can only be between one man and one woman and discussed the merits of a corporate Google Mail (GMail) account with a PinkNews reader.
James Fendek wrote to the cross-bencher :-
In your view, if a heterosexual couple want to get married, but are known to be sterile, with no possibility of children should they be allowed to marry? What about an older couple where the female has been though the menopause, should they be allowed to marry? What about if a couple want to marry but never want children, should that be allowed? What about if a couple have married but then not had children, should their marriage be annulled?
I’m interested to hear how your argument against equal marriage applies to these situations, and how you would to change current legislation to ensure childless marriages are stopped.
Lord Carey, who has received eight messages via the LobbyALord website, replied:-
Sure they should. Procreation is only one part of marriage and it does not necessarily follow that all heterosexuals must be able to procreate- esp if they can’t!
My argument does not rest on that alone. MARRIAGE HAS BEEN UNIVERSALLY AND HISTORICALLY DEFINED AS THE UNION OF A MAN AND WOMAN. We have no right to depart from that fact.
You have every right to disagree.
Mr Fendeck replied:-
Thank you for replying to my email, I didn’t expect you to.
I’m afraid I do disagree, just because something has always been so doesn’t mean that it always has to be. Obvious examples would be the fight for women’s liberation, the end of segregation, and the abolition of slavery.
On a different note, I notice you email from a gmail account, if you sign up-to google apps you can use a gmail mail box but with your own domain, it costs about £30 a year per address, and would allow you to email with a @glcarey.co.uk address. Have a look at this link to find out what to do. It would make your emails look more professional.
Although Lord Carey wasn’t able to agree with Mr Fendeck’s arguments about same-sex marriage, he appeared agreeable to changing his email arrangements, responding:-
I am truly grateful to you for the suggestion!
Warm regards
George Carey
In an essay titled ‘Love is Not Enough’, published by the think tank Civitas, Lord Carey argued “not all relationships are the same”.
He puts forward claims that marriage equality would enable incestuous marriages to take place – an argument recently given publicity by Lord Norman Tebbit, when he asked of same-sex marriage in an interview: “Why shouldn’t a mother marry her daughter? Why shouldn’t two elderly sisters living together marry each other? I quite fancy my brother!”
Lord Carey, who has previously accused David Cameron of creating a “broken society” through the same-sex marriage bill, writes: “Once we let go of the exclusivity of a one man-one woman relationship with procreation linking the generations, then why stop there?
“If it is ‘about love and commitment’ then it is entirely logical to extend marriage to, say, two sisters bringing up children together.
“If it is merely ‘about love and commitment’ then there is nothing illogical about multiple relationships, such as two women and one man.”
He adds: “Those of us accused of being on the wrong side of history can only plead with the Government to respect our concern that extending marriage to same-sex couples is not only unwise, but also sets a dangerous precedent.”
