Same reason we have it in the US.

How about both

You have the CofE muddled with America. Here taxes are paid… except for the VAT on doing repairs on listed buildings. Which is fair enough - unless we should give state funding to keeping our historic landscape un-crumbly. Saying that, if they are a state church, they should definitely start marrying couples who live here.

The UK doesn't have a state mosque like the Church of England.

A couple of thousand years ago.

The CoE isn't just a faith though, it's a government institution, which gives parliament some avenues to enforce oversight, like this.

And homophobia is objectively bad, just like every other moral failure of organized religion lately.

The historical reality is that throughout history, religions often have needed to be "bullied" into doing the moral and truthful thing.

Oddly enough, as a Christian I'd disagree in this case. The reason being that the CoE doesn't have anything like the separation of church and state you'd find in the United States: some of the bishops in the CoE automatically have a place in the House of Lords merely by virtue of being bishops (these are called Lords Spiritual). They can't have their cake and eat it.

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Now, if all they wanted to do was articulate a view of human sexuality that holds that the male and female sexes are complementary halves of the divine image that are united in marriage, that's fine -- and if people don't like it, they don't have to join their church. Withholding your church's rites from someone that disagrees with its teachings is indeed distinct from homophobia, which is failing to grant people equal legal rights. (Though as we know, many people have been doing both, sadly). You can't expect people to follow your clubhouse's rules if they aren't members -- but you also can't expect the clubhouse to let you in if you don't want to play by their rules.

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But here's the problem: they're trying to do that while also being basically an extension of the state -- a state, in this case, which holds a very different view of human sexuality, as does much of the populace. Those clubhouses overlap, quite messily. And, again, we know that a lot of them aren't just holding a different view of sexuality -- at least some are also trying to deny people those legal rights, which they have the political oomph to do thanks to the Lords Spiritual. And in this case, the guy mentioned in the article, Bradshaw, is saying that if this disagreement continues, "disestablishment" may have to result -- in other words, severing the link between the government and the church.

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Which, as a Christian -- and ironically an Anglican at that -- is honestly what should be done anyway. I agree strongly that faiths should not be bullied into doing anything, but I also strongly think that any time the church tries to coerce instead of persuade, it is doing wrong -- people shouldn't be bullied into doing anything by faiths, either.

"I'm gay"

Yeah as a bisexual research scientist I cannot imagine how twisted your brain would have to be to say "it's up to the religion if they want to treat gay people like abominations haha 😊". Bro nah nobody should be home of phobic this take is awful.

1. They’re a state institution so they don’t get to decide their own policy.

2. If you discriminate against people because of how they’re born then, for me at least, you don’t get to operate in the UK. Whinge and cry all you want but I’d close you down and send you back to the Dark ages where you belong.

Either you are not gay or you have severe internalized homophobia! Cant believe you are being serious.