eChurch Blog

2 Responses to “Equality and Human Rights Commission reverses position on religious cases intervention”

1. Roger Pearse Says:
   August 25th, 2011 at 10:21 am

   Kicking Christians still officially OK, then.

2. Peter Denshaw Says:
   August 25th, 2011 at 12:14 pm

   Roger

   Come, come, surely you’re more intelligent and honourable than to glory in the in ignoble art of victimhood. The cases in question – Ladele and Mcfarlane are highly questionable in the ‘religious’ conviction of not providing services they were contractually obliged to provide as employees of Equal Ops employers. Ladele stated she couldn’t conduct civil partnership ceremonies (note, NOT weddings) for same sex couples because it was against Biblical ideals of marriage… Yet, as noted in parenthesis, civil partnerships are NOT marriages, moreover Jesus words on marriage and divorce and pretty clear, anyone who divorces and remarries, when not the injured party as a result of marital unfaithfulness, is committing adultary; we didn’t hear Ladele whining to her employers that she had to marry divorcees did we? (Nor the many sham marriages, London registrars knowingly carry out every day – no compunction and court case came via Ladele about bearing false witness, did it?) Which I think tells us something about the limit of her Biblically troubled conscience… And let’s face it, if African and Afro-Caribbean churches, as conservative as they are when it comes to homosexuality, became huffy about divorce, they’d be empty in no time, looking at the track record of these ethnic groups when it comes to the stability of their marriages (these groups have the highest failure rate of marriage in the UK). Perhaps that is why it seems these particular groups need to make such a fuss of ‘soft’ targets or the ‘easy’ morality (in that it does cost the finger wagger anything) of condemning homosexuals (odd these communities have high church attendance, yet high teenage pregnancy, divorce, lone parenthood, gun and knife crime and (in the case of Africans) HIV infection, it does make you wonder why it seems some from these same communities make such a fuss about homosexuality when there is more in their own backyard they could be worrying about!).

   Similarly Mcfarlane said he couldn’t provide sex therapy to same sex couples because he thought same sex activity was un-Biblical; yet he saw no problem in providing sex therapy to unmarried heterosexual couples… Which is, forgive me if I have misunderstood Christian thinking on this issue, itself un-Biblical. The fact both Mcfarlane and Ladele were rather selective in their ‘Biblical conscience’, in a manner that, I’m sure just by a spooky coincidence echoes unsavoury prejudice, suggests they really don’t have a leg to stand on!

   Both employees signed contracts of employment stating they would uphold their employers’ equal opportunities’ policies and stating, in writing, that they would not discriminate in provision of their employers’ services on the grounds of sexuality (in addition to a raft of other grounds). By odd coincidence, I have applied for a job/ social work placement with both Islington Council and Relate (in the case of the latter in 1993): from job advertisement, to application form and to interview, I was again and again reminded that both employers had an equal opportunities policy that did not discriminate in the provision of services on the grounds of sexual orientation. For these two ‘conscientious souls’ this would have extended to signing their contract, which would also contain a statement binding them to uphold their employers’ equal ops policy in the provision of services. Yet our ‘devout Christians’ appeared myopic or deaf when it came to these documents and questions asked at interview. Perhaps it demonstrates that people should think very carefully before signing employment contracts?

   Should equal ops be changed to accommodate ‘Christian Values’ (or in this case, HIGHLY SELECTIVE Christian values)? No, I don’t think so, it is about time one’s ‘faith’ cost something; you can’t have your cake and eat it… Martyrdom (aka Christian witness) does cost something – it is not a means of cheap of celebrity, ‘easy’ righteousness and a fat compo payout… It is when Christians were being really kicked that the Gospel spread and the Church grew… Now there’s food for thought.

   P.