God ‘testing moral fibre of the people’
Reaction to the passing of the Homosexual Law Reform Bill by Parliament last evening was predictable. The bill was passed by 49 votes to 44.
God had tested the moral fibre of the people of New Zealand by allowing the Homosexual Law Reform Bill to be passed, said the president of Concerned Christians, Mr George McGirr. Mr McGirr, of Nelson, placed an advertisement in a Wellington newspaper yesterday asking Christians to fast and pray so that God’s will would be revealed.
“We can only assume that the Lord’s will has been revealed,” he said last evening. “Maybe the most important issue is that the total moral fibre of the country will be tested. This may be what is required to stir the Christians of New Zealand to a more active role in the elections — to be more vociferous in stating their opinions.”
Mr McGirr said the organisation would urge Christians to vote against any member of Parliament who voted for the bill.
“We have to accept what Parliament is doing this time, but we don’t have to accept it when It comes to the General Election.” The co-ordinator of the
Christchurch Gay Task Force, Mr Andrew Carstairs, was delighted that the bill had been passed. He believed its passing had made the months of lobbying worth while and he was grateful for the support Of people throughout the community. “This brings New Zealand into line with almost every Western country,” he said. He expected there
would still be opposition to homosexuality within the community on moral grounds, but said that was not the point at debate. “It has been a question of what the law should impose upon people, not a question of moral convictions.” He was pleased also that the age had been passed at 16.
"Not that 16 is a magi-
cal number but there is no good reason why the age of consent for heterosexual and homosexual activity should be any different,” he said.
Moral lights have gone out in New Zealand, according to the national spokesman for the Coalition of Concerned Citizens, Mr Barry Reed. Mr Reed, describing homosexuality as medically dangerous, biologically absurd and morally wrong, said the act’s passing was a rejection of the will of the people. The Government had consistently manipulated the Parliamentary system to ensure that the act became law.
This was particularly obvious at the select committee stage when Mr Trevor Mallard prevented all the submissions being heard.
“We must show moral standards to the young, and legalising sodomy' is not a moral standard,” Mr Reed said. New Zealand could expect a dramatic increase in the incidence of A.I.D.S. especially among the young. “I cannot think of any thing more devastating to the youth of New Zealand than what has happened in Parliament tonight,” he said.
Mr Reed also criticised the fact that sodomy would now be permitted
between heterosexual couples. Those women in Parliament who had helped pass the act had “let their sex down very badly.”
Predicting that the real battle had only just begun, Mr Reed said the issue could well upset the Government at the next election. New Zealanders had been betrayed, not only by the passing of the act itself but by the rejection of the will of the people as shown by the petition against the bill last year. The Catholic Bishop of Christchurch, the Most Rev. Denis Hanrahan, said 16 was too young as an age of consent for both men and Women.
Bishop Hanrahan said last evening he hoped people would not confuse what was morally acceptable with what was legal, now that the Homosexual Law Reform Bill had been passed.
He said he felt the age of 16 was too young as an age of consent for young men. He then said it was too young for all young people.
The Bishop of Christchurch, the Rt Rev. Maurice Goodall, had no comment last evening.
God ‘testing moral fibre of the people’
Press, 10 July 1986, Page 8
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