A Bishop has threatened to ban all weddings if same-sex marriage becomes legal.
The extraordinary claim comes from the Anglican Bishop of North West Australia Gary Nelson.
Speaking as the country votes on whether same-sex couples should be allowed to get married, the Bishop made an extraordinary threat.
He claimed that if the vote in favour of equal marriage passes, he would block the registration of any marriages whatsoever in the region – for straight couples too.
(Photo by Bethany Clarke/Getty Images)
Bishop Nelson told The West Australian: “If we are in a situation where there isn’t enough religious exemptions regarding marrying same-sex people, then we’d have to pull out from being celebrants, so just withdraw all the approvals for everyone.”
He falsely claimed: “Even if we withdrew licences and a same-sex couple came in saying, ‘We want to use your building’, and we say no, will we have a right to say no to a use of our building?
“All of those things are still unclear.”
There have been zero incidents anywhere in the world of churches being compelled to host same-sex unions.
Draft backbench laws on the issue in Australia include legal protections for churches that do not wish to perform same-sex unions.
Elsewhere in Australia this week, a Catholic Archbishop claimed that the government needs to “stay out of the bedroom” on same-sex marriage.
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