Over on UK’s Daily Telegraph (often referred to as “torygraph” for its right wing bias), columnist Cristina Odone warns prime minister Cameron not to legalize gay marriage-or else.
Once gay marriage is legal, secularists can rely on a host of equality laws to prosecute a conscientious objector who fails to promote it. The Government has offered guarantees to the Churches; but the gay rights lobby will target these, chipping away at the fringes of such measures. Cameron may pledge that a Catholic priest will not be forced to celebrate a gay marriage; but what about his church hall being used for a same-sex wedding party?
If the building is private property, how can it possibly be used for any purpose without the owner’s consent anyway?
Catholic professionals, too, will be challenged: a Catholic who teaches in a state school that marriage between a man and a woman is the ideal model will be barred from the classroom. And what of Catholic marriage counsellors? Will they be allowed to practise what their priests have preached for millennia? Catholics will be prosecuted and persecuted. So will other Christians.
Well you know, it was the catholic doctrine for millennia that the Jews killed Jesus. A catholic who tries to pull off something like that in state schools will be sacked in a heart beat. Believe what you believe, but you cannot take advantage of your status as a state employee to promote hate. As for a marriage counsellor-aren’t they supposed to put professionalism before creed? What if you have a Pat Robertson-style fundamentalist who thinks a believer should not be married to a non-believer? Will that be acceptable?
Of course, it gets better.
But, just as was true in Henry’s time, plenty of them are willing to be martyred for their conscience. This is bad news for the Prime Minister: martyrdom (so long as it doesn’t cost innocent lives) earns grudging respect…
Already, there are many Christians willing to play Thomas More to David Cameron’s Henry VIII. The Prime Minister knows all too well that although More lost his head, Henry lost his reputation.
While I am by no means a fan of Mr Cameron, comparing him to Henry VIII is..well…priceless. For one thing, someone needs to remind Odone that the UK does not have the death penalty, so no matter how grave the offenses, objectors to equality for gays are not going to be put to death. For another thing, the UK has an independent judiciary, which it didn’t under Henry VIII. And lastly, doesn’t Cameron have to face the voters? Did Henry VIII run for office?
There is another point to be made here. Thomas More, the catholic “patron saint of politicians and statesmen”, has a reputation that isn’t all so much better than Henry VIII. Sure, the Tudor king was violent and coercive in matters of religion, so was More. In fact, More burned people at the stake for heresy, meaning, for being protestants.
So if today’s homophobes want to be likened to More, by all means, let them go ahead.
