The Anglican Archbishop of Sydney has warned his church’s followers that legalising same-sex marriage could lead to polygamy and incest.

Peter Jensen (pictured) wrote about gay marriage in the church’s Southern Cross newspaper: ‘’This claim for a right to be married could open the way for other forms, such as polygamous marriages or perhaps even marriage between immediate family members.

‘’Ensuring public honour of same-sex relationships by calling them marriages is an abuse of marriage itself,’’ the traditionalist added, according to the Sydney Morning Herald.

‘’It imposes, through social engineering, a newly minted concept of marriage on a community that understands it in quite another way.’’

Not letting same-sex couple marry is not unjust, he concluded. “It is not even discrimination in the current sense of the word – but a refusal to call different things by the same name.”

SIMPLY WRONG

Jensen’s ‘slippery slope’ argument against same-sex marriage is a nonsense, agree Same Same’s favourite equality activists.

Proud mum to a gay son Shelley Argent responded quickly on Facebook to the story this morning: “Always seems to be the same boring arguments… polygamy, incest, bestiality… is that the best you can come up with, Jensen?”

National Convener of Australian Marriage Equality Alex Greenwich points out that the proposed amendments to Australia’s marriage act would still allow the Anglican Church to interpret marriage as they currently do, but shouldn’t limit other religions or civil celebrants from conducting same-sex weddings if they wish.

“I can respectfully assure Archbishop Jenson, that should the discrimination in the marriage act be removed, and the Anglican Church will still be able to interpret marriage in the way that his article suggests,” Greenwich says.

“The Archbishop would acknowledge we live in a multi-faith society, and as such he must respect that his views should not be imposed on those religions that want to perform same-sex marriages such as the Quakers and progressive Synagogues, or the civil celebrants who perform 67% of all marriages.”

Greenwich also pointed out that the Archbishop’s comments were not based on any facts or international examples.

“In all the countries that have allowed same-sex marriages to take place over the past decade, including Catholic Spain and Portugal, the alarmist predications of the Archbishop have not occurred.”

The Archbishop’s comments have also been criticized by people from across the globe, including Borris Dittrich, a former Dutch MP and now an Advocacy Director with Human Rights Watch, who remembers similar tactics being used in Holland 10 years ago.

“In Holland religious leaders tried to scare the general public by stating that same sex marriage would lead to accepting polygamy,” recalls Dittrich.

“These arguments were dismissed by the government. And Holland hasn’t seen polygamy in the 10 years after same sex marriage was introduced in 2001.”