The downside to mixing church and state is that “church” is corrupted by “state”, not the other way around. The official church in the UK is a tool of the state.
The C of E is a part of the government.
Imagine the concept of an organization called "The Church of America"
First of all, it would likely have been declared unconstitutional, but if it HAD been allowed to stand, I have absolutely NO DOUBT it would be 100% full retard liberal in 2014.
The irony of our own separation of church and state is that it really hurts the liberal cause.
For now, US churches can refuse to perform such "marriages".
I predict this will be changed in the future, but that pesky First Amendment gets in the way.
Here's the funny part.
The Brits all but laugh at our "churchgoers".
They truly have no concept of it.
I used to date a British woman and she said: "Nobody goes to church in England!"
It's true.
I can't remember the stats, but a very small % of the English population goes to church.
In the UK, you're born, get baptized maybe, and then when you die, you get a nice service in a church.
But that's about it.
In the intervening 70-80 years of your life you rarely see the inside of a church. Unless it's for a funeral.
Too bad. England has some of the most beautiful churches in the world.
So my suspicion is that these 2 gay guys just want to start trouble, and that they rarely if ever attend services.
To them, it's just a nice building down the street.