More "Official" Persecution of Christians in the UK

In the event you thought my previous post (May 4: The Zeitgeist Strikes Again) was an anomaly and not a true indication of the degradation of justice in the UK, here's another.

It seems one Gary McFarlane (photo at left), a "relationship counselor," was fired because, as a Christian, he refused to provide counseling to a homosexual couple. Specifically, the requested counseling was for "sex therapy" sessions. As a result, according to the Daily Telegraph story, "McFarlane, 48, challenged his dismissal at the Court of Appeal, arguing that forcing him to go against what he sees as the Bible’s teaching represented religious discrimination." Sounds right to me.

The court, however, ruled against McFarlane: "Lord Justice Laws ruled that while everyone had the right to hold religious beliefs, those beliefs themselves had no standing under the law. In the eye of everyone save the believer, religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence.” The Lord Justice went on to insist that religious belief cannot be protected by the law, “however long its tradition, however rich its culture”.

The irony here is that the very law that the court presumes to interpret is, in large part, a product of its Christian roots. It was brought to the UK and subsequently formed by Christians, who were guided by Christian moral and ethical principles. And a history of two millennia of growth and acceptance by a wide range of cultures and societies seems to be pretty good evidence that there might be a wee bit of objective truth in Christian teaching. The poor Lord Justice, however, is far too stupid to understand this. (By the way, I suspect that the previous sentence, had I written it as a UK citizen, would bring a knock at the door.)

Totalitarianism can enter a society under many different guises. As one supporter of the court's decision -- Terry Sanderson, president of the National Secular Society -- commented, “The law must be clear that anti-discrimination laws exist to protect people, not beliefs."

Watch out for them beliefs, kids -- they'll get you in trouble.

...and so it goes, just as the Lord promised.

Pax et bonum...