But we do know the opinion expressed to the National Church Life Survey on 2011 by the people who were in the pews that day.

73 per cent were opposed, 13 per cent in favour and the other 13 per cent undecided. Pentecostals were 88 per cent opposed, and Church of Christ and Baptist 85 per cent. The Uniting Church was 56 per cent opposed. This means church goers in all major church groups in Australia expressed majority opposition to same sex marriage. (It is fair to say that some minority support for it was found in all these groups, including the most conservative.)

Eternity has assembled opinion pieces from a range of Christian leaders. We have reflected the range of church-goers’ views.

We have always been confident that thoughtful Christians are good at working through a discussion of views and here you can put them to the test:

Please take this seriously by Brian Houston

We’ll lose friends by Campbell Markham

Getting to ‘Yes’ by Simon Carey Holt

Reasons for ‘No’ by Lyle Shelton

Don’t Shift by Lucy Gichuhi

A real danger to religious freedom by Neil Foster

Why I won’t tell my church how to vote by Nathan Campbell