UK Minister “manoeuvring” against marriage, says senior cleric

A prominent Church of England bishop has accused a senior Labour Cabinet Minister of “manoeuvring” to undermine support for marriage. 

The Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali has said Equalities Minister Harriet Harman is contributing to a “liberal merry-go-round”, which reduces the number of marriages by spreading the message that all types of families are equally good for children. 

His comments are the latest development in the increasingly bitter public debate between Labour and the Conservatives over whether the State should reward couples who get married. 

In an article to be published in The Church of England Newspaper this week, Dr Nazir-Ali, a leading traditionalist who stepped down as Bishop of Rochester earlier this year, becomes the first senior clergyman to enter the argument and defend marriage and two-parent families. 

He writes: “Harriet Harman has claimed recently that families come in all shapes and sizes and we should not discriminate between them. This is a well-known manoeuvre. 

“The tendency has been, first of all, to form public opinion, for example, by claiming repeatedly that all forms of ‘family’ are equally good for children. ‘Soft research’, through focus groups and surveys, then discovers, unsurprisingly, that this is what the public is beginning to believe. That is used, in turn, to bolster the validity of the claim and to use it in the delivery of policy, services and so on. Can this liberal merry-go-round ever be stopped?” 

Dr Nazir-Ali, who believes the decline of Christian values is destroying Britishness, described Dr Rake’s comments about the death of the nuclear family as “another glaring example of how the liberal elite give in cravenly to ‘trends’ in society which they themselves have helped to create”.

The bishop agreed that the “heroic” efforts of single parents and other relatives such as grandparents to bring up children should not be ignored, but said research has shown that young people do suffer without the influence of both mother and father. “We should resist the temptation to refer to trends in society as if they were irreversible and we had no choice but to formulate strategies for families and children in the light of them. 

“This smacks very much of self-fulfilling prophecy and will lead to even more irresponsibility among those parents who are only too willing to ‘palm off’ care of their children on to society or grandparents or other relatives. 

“We should do everything to make sure that parents accept primary responsibility in the care of their children, whatever assistance they may receive from others.” 

Dr Nazir-Ali said it is “vital for social well-being” that marriage is recognised as unique in the law and tax system. 

But he added that his colleagues in the Church must also play an important role. 

“For centuries this country had a public understanding of marriage based on the marriage service in the Book of Common Prayer. It has been eroded over the last several years and has now all but disappeared. It needs to be reaffirmed robustly.” 

He concluded: “The voice of the Church, and of its leaders, has been little heard in this debate so far. Let us hear them, loudly and clearly, arguing for the abiding importance of marriage and family, especially as we approach the family-festival of Christmas.”

BR> Last week, Dr Katherine Rake, the new head of the public-funded Family and Parenting Institute, declared that the nuclear family is no longer “the norm” and so Government attempts to rescue or subsidise it are futile. 

David Cameron accused Labour of having a “pathological opposition” to marriage, and confirmed that the Conservatives would bring back tax breaks for married couples should they win the election. 

But Miss Harman, Labour’s deputy leader, described his party’s plans as a “philanderer’s charter” that would discriminate unfairly against single parents benefiting men who remarry. 

She said that it is not a minister’s role to protect the institution of marriage, and that Labour does not favour “one way of family life over another”.

The Iona Institute
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