Are Civil Partnerships ok if the couple does not have genital contact?

Scripture is silent on Civil Partnerships (CPs). They are a legal means whereby the Government grants certain legal provisions to those involved. The Government is free to grant whatever rights it wishes to its citizens and TfT has no wish to deny those rights. The key problem is one of perception that whilst CPs are technically not marriage, certainly not as it is biblically defined, they are seen by many as equivalent to marriage. TfT’s position is to uphold biblical marriage.

Unlike marriage, CPs do not legally seem to mention a sexual component. This means you cannot dissolve a CP on the grounds of it not being consummated. They were initially designed to be legally different from marriage in that respect. The problem, as mentioned earlier, is they may not be defined legally as a sexual relationship but most people would assume they are sexual. The question here therefore is the impression/message being in a civil partnership gives about the nature of a relationship. Also a civil partnership would have to be dissolved if either partner wants get married to someone of the opposite sex. Andrew Goddard’s Grove booklet on this is very helpful. Scripture gives clear examples of two people of the same sex making a covenant with each other before God. Some may argue that initially CPs could have given a legal framework for this. However, nowadays most people see it as an equivalent to marriage, which is unacceptable for Christians.