Christian Charity

BBC News: No exemption from gay rights law

[Catholic] Adoption agencies had warned they would close rather than place children with gay couples, saying that went against their beliefs.
But Tony Blair said they would get 21 months to prepare for change, calling this a "sensible compromise".

Good ol' Christian Charity. The Catholic Church in England doesn't want to let children in its orphanages be given away to gay parents, and wants to be exempt from anti-discrimination laws that say they have to.

Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor, head of Catholics in England and Wales, said this: "We are, of course, deeply disappointed that no exemption will be granted to our agencies on the grounds of widely held religious conviction and conscience."

"Widely held religious conviction and conscience"? I believe he means "widely held religious bigotry and homophobia".

How is denying adoption to gays any different than denying it to, say, black people? I suppose the difference would be that if an organization wanted to deny adoption privileges to a black couple, that organization would not be able to justify its intolerance and irrationality with the base prejudices of an antiquated mythical tradition.

I applaud Tony Blair for taking a firm stand and declaring that "There is no place in our society for discrimination." Bigotry is bigotry, regardless of whether it tries to cloak itself in the false legitimacy of religious belief.

One last thing: Catholic orphanages "would close rather than place children with gay couples"? Now that's the kind of dedicated intolerance at which religion excels. They would rather see orphans starve on the street than see them corrupted by the pernicious influence of loving same-sex parents.