Christians go forth and vilify

Predictably, it’s the religious who are up in arms about further legislation to ensure that some sections of the community are not treated unfairly.

Happy that the law now forbids direct incitement to hatred against them, some among the religious are not happy that the same law will now be extended to a group they happen to despise.

“Vicars could face up to seven years in jail for simply preaching from the Bible under Government plans to criminalise incitement of homosexual hatred,” screams the UK’s Daily Express with typical tabloid rabble-rousing fervour.

Britain’s Justice Secretary, Jack Straw, wants the new offence added to the Criminal Justice and Immigration Bill, which is currently going through Parliament. It’s expected that it will mirror the incitement-to-religious-hatred law, which carries a maximum penalty of seven years.

Richard Underwood of the Fellowship of Independent Evangelical Churches said: “I think Christians feel under threat here. Lots of Christians do not subscribe to the gay lifestyle but have a great heart.

“But gay rights always trump Christian rights, despite the fact this country based its laws on Christian rights for many hundreds of years.”

No, Mr Underwood, they do not trump Christian rights. The proposed new law is unlikely to work like that (not that there’s really any need for these laws, since there are already measures to deal with incitement to violence). If you were to say that gay folk, or, for that matter, those of no religion, are a few books short of a testament, you would continue to be within your rights, even if you were wrong (and you would be). You might be challenged publicly, but the police would probably feel they had better things to do than to swoop in a dawn raid on your home.

By the same token, if this contributor were to make a public statement that your religion is nuttier than squirrel poo, no one would do anything about it. It would be intemperate, a bit of a generalisation, perhaps, but really quite harmless, and any inaction on the authorities’ part would not be a sign that your Christianity was being trumped: it would merely be a case of common sense.

If one were to say, “Underwood must be eliminated for what he says” in a hall crowded with people who might just take that seriously, well, that would be another matter entirely. One would then expect to be arrested or at least robustly silenced.

If you wish to make a statement in your church that gay people go against what it says in your holy book, it’s doubtful that a SWAT team will descend on the building and bundle you and the congregation into a fleet of black Marias.

If, on the other hand, you preach hellfire and brimstone while inciting your faithful flock of fluffy followers to get out there and kick the shit out of the nearest pair of fashionably attired chaps who happen to be Doctor Who fans and are admiring curtain materials in Ikea, then you might have a problem.

A short quote from the Express story:

The Ministry of Justice insisted a new law would not prohibit “criticism” of homosexuals. Gay and lesbian rights group Stonewall, which has been lobbying for such a law for several months, claimed it would not affect the right to express beliefs “in temperate terms”.

And the Christian Institute – which is to human rights, and gay rights in particular, what the Archbishop of Canterbury is to mud wrestling in a jockstrap – has been wheeled on to say, via its usual mouthpiece Colin Hart: “In a democratic society people must be free to express their beliefs without fear of censure from the state.

“A homophobic hatred law would be used by those with an axe to grind against Christians to silence them.”

Calm down, gentlemen, both of you. No, it would not. While there are individual nutcases, psychopaths and paranoid, hate-filled prats among gay people, as there are among society in general, gay people as an identifiable group, the way, say, Christians are an identifiable group, are not going to sink to your level of wishing to silence people, unless they are actively inciting hatred and/or violence. Nor, come to that, will most Christians – not those in the UK, anyway. (It’s harder to speak for the brand of Christianity in some countries, where it often seems like a substitute for mainlining super-augmented Class A drugs six times before breakfast.)

Apart from anything else, it is only by listening to your outbursts that those you hate so passionately might join in argument with you – not, it must be suspected, that you would ever submit yourself to a public argument based on reason and logic. (Anyway, your outpourings usually provide a bit of a laugh. It would be a shame to deprive the world of that.)

Joke, by all means; take the piss – just don’t advocate violence or incite it; and be prepared to back up your opinions with reasoned argument. And don’t expect the law to come down on your side all the time. We all have rights.

Another Christian Institute spokesman, unnamed, told the Express: “The criminal law will extend to the pulpit and we could have vicars standing before a court trying to defend themselves.”

It depends on what they are saying, sir. This contributor says you are a bumbling twassock for saying that, but does not expect to be arrested. If he said, “We know where you live” or “Bet you really love your kids, don’t you?” that might be a different matter.

So grow up, all of you - and start showing a bit of that love that the chap you claim to follow is supposed to have advocated.

Here endeth . . .