INDIA - Court Rejects Same-Sex Marriage
India’s top court refused to legalize same-sex marriages, passing the responsibility back to Parliament in a ruling that disappointed campaigners for LGBTQ+ rights in the world’s most populous country.
Chief Justice DY Chandrachud also urged the government to uphold the rights of the queer community and end discrimination against them.
Chandrachud said there were degrees of agreement and disagreement among the justices “on how far we have to go” on same-sex marriages, but the judges unanimously agreed that the court can’t grant LGBTQ+ people the right to marry because that is a legislative function.
In 2018, the top court struck down a colonial-era law that had made gay sex punishable by up to 10 years in prison and expanded constitutional rights for the gay community.
The chief justice also rejected the government’s assertion that being queer was an “urban” concept, saying it’s not just “an English-speaking man” or a “white-collar man” who can claim to be queer, but equally, “a woman working in an agricultural job in a village.”
In May, Taiwan became the first jurisdiction in Asia to recognize same-sex marriages. In July, Nepal’s Supreme Court issued an interim order enabling the registration of same-sex marriages for the first time. It’s still not clear when the court would make its final decision on the case.
-www.npr.org, 17 October 2023
Arno's Commentary
When looking at a world map, one notices that the so-called Western (“Christian”) world has legalized same-sex marriage. In Africa, it’s only the country of South Africa, and in Asia only Taiwan is listed in this category. It’s quite interesting to realize that the Muslims, the Hindus, the Buddhists, and the atheist countries do not accept this type of “equity.”
What does the Bible say? “Wherefore God also gave them up to uncleanness through the lusts of their own hearts, to dishonour their own bodies between themselves” (Romans 1:24).
When the apostle Peter speaks about “false prophets … false teachers” and “damnable heresies,” he writes in 2 Peter 2:7-8: “And delivered just Lot, vexed with the filthy conversation of the wicked: (For that righteous man dwelling among them, in seeing and hearing, vexed his righteous soul from day to day with their unlawful deeds).”
Arno Froese is the executive director of Midnight Call Ministries and editor-in-chief of the acclaimed prophetic magazines Midnight Call and News From Israel. He has authored a number of well-received books, and has sponsored many prophecy conferences in the U.S., Canada, and Israel. His extensive travels have contributed to his keen insight into Bible prophecy, as he sees it from an international perspective.
