I respectfully respond to Wycombe MP Steve Baker, and Benjamin King (BFP Feb 8) re same sex marriage. Mr. Baker wrote: “I do not think it is right for a view based only on faith to be placed in law.”

On what basis, then, should laws be formed? Society has to have some sort of collective values. What should be the yardstick? The political correctness of the moment? Secularism and the liberal consensus have demonstrated how they cannot be relied upon, because they have immorally permitted the destruction of seven million babies in the womb since 1967; hardly a good recommendation.

To separate British law from any identity with Christianity represents the abandonment of our existing constitution and of the Queen’s coronation oath to “maintain the laws of God”. It also represents a reversal of over a thousand years of English history, going back to King Alfred, and a repudiation of the Bible’s teaching that a nation’s ruler or government should be “the minister of God” for the good of society (Romans 13:4).

Regarding Mr King’s comments, he is mistaken in arguing that the prohibitions on mixed fibres and mingled seed are aspects of God’s moral law. These regulations (which were good and sensible – e.g. wool and linen do not combine well) form part of the Old Testament civil and ceremonial laws. The same goes for the penalty against profaning the sabbath. They applied to the limited period of Israel’s possession of the Promised Land prior to the coming of Christ. The difference between these temporary ordinances and God’s eternal moral law is clearly explained in the New Testament.

In Acts 15:24-29, for example, we learn that that there is no requirement for Christians to be circumcised; yet this was an Old Testament law. What circumcision foreshadowed, however, has now reached its fulfilment in the new birth, which is the removal of inward corruption upon faith in Christ. The setting aside of the law on circumcision (and of the other civil and ceremonial regulations) in no way invalidates God’s moral law concerning stealing, lying, adultery and honouring parents etc.

Homosexuality is a breach of the moral law, and the Bible teaches that the human body is not designed for it. It is an act of compassion to point this out and to make calls to repentance. If same sex marriage becomes legal, there is no logical reason why children should not be taught the physical mechanics of homosexual activity as part of sex education classes, which are mandatory in secondary schools. That would not be a wholesome development.

Yours in polite discussion,

Rev. Peter Simpson.

Penn Free Methodist Church