Dave's Part supports the Pope
Well I suppose not quite, but interesting nevertheless. David Osler ("Ex-punk. Ex-Trot. Unchanged attitude problem.") writes a thought-provoking piece on his blog Dave's Part, about Pope Benedict XVI and UK Equality Law. Reading this, you need to exercise indulgence in ignoring some of the de rigeur socialist inverted snootiness about the Catholic Church and enjoy the fact that he highlights the inconsistency of the hated New Labour revisionism, as in:
Well, New Labour in office has been adamant about its wish for ‘dialogue’ with ‘faith communities’, so it can hardly feign surprise when a religion with over 4m adherents takes it up on the idea.Again, leaving aside some of the bits we would all take issue with, just consider this from a left-wing commentator:
Common sense alone dictates that the League Against Cruel Sports has no duty to be an equal opportunities employer in respect of illegal cock fighting aficionados. If you apply to be a Conservative parliamentary candidate and then inform the selection meeting that you are an anarcho-syndicalist, you do not have grounds subsequently to bring a discrimination case.
Peter Tatchell – a man with whom I usually agree on much – has been widely quoted taking the Pope to task on this one. But my guess is that he wouldn’t hire an overt homophobe for an admin job at OutRage!
By the same token, if you want to work for the Catholic Church, your potential bosses might reasonably expect you to uphold the teachings of Catholicism. If you are gay, it will presumably not have escaped your notice that the Vatican has a longstanding downer on hot man-on-man legover action.
And why would a self-respecting gay man or woman want to be a member of an organisation that teaches them that same-sex personal relationships are sinful, anyway? There are plenty of wussy denominations that take a more inclusive line, not least the Church of England.