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Bishop's shameful attack on gay people has no place in modern Scottish life
13 Mar 2008- Anyone concerned for
social justice in Scotland should take Bishop Joseph Devine's latest hate speech
(your report, 13 March) as a spur to keep fighting for honesty, fairness and
truth in the politics of this country.
There is nothing more dangerous than the
injection of irrational, self-proclaimed morality into the "national
conversation".
The bishop's baseless, hysterical attacks on gay people are evidence of the
Catholic Church's failure to deliver moral leadership to its flock. Condemning
children who are growing up realising they are gay is not moral leadership, it
is child abuse.
Condemning those, like myself, who have been asked by the government to take
part in Holocaust Memorial Day events to represent the LGBT community, which
suffered mass executions under the Nazi regime, is not moral leadership. It is
moral cowardice.
If our government has any ambitions for social justice, now is the time for it
to stand up to the Catholic Church and say "No more". I call on Alex Salmond to
publicly condemn Bishop Devine, to distance his party and government from
Catholic homophobia and make a stand for Scotland as a secular, fair and equal
society.
DUNCAN HOTHERSALL, Dalkeith Road, Edinburgh
While Calum Irving of Stonewall Scotland is correct to criticise the Bishop of
Motherwell's homophobic outburst, he is wrong to claim the bishop's views are
"un-Christian". The Bible repeatedly condemns homosexuality, even specifying the
death penalty, and for centuries most organised opposition to gays has come from
religious sources.
And it continues. Does Mr Irving remember the Vatican's statement that gays are
"intrinsically disordered"? Has he never come across Stephen Green's Christian
Voice? Or read of the 1977 blasphemy trial against Gay News instigated by Mary
Whitehouse? Has he forgotten the late (and very Christian) Baroness Young, who
obstructed every attempt to bring equality to the age of consent laws? Or the
Christian Brian Souter, who led a campaign against the repeal of Section 28?
Deluded and prejudiced the bishop's views may be, but "un-Christian" they
emphatically are not.
(DR) STEPHEN MORETON, Marina Avenue, Warrington, Cheshire
As a member of the Holocaust Memorial Day organising group for the 2003 event
held in Edinburgh, I was deeply disappointed by Bishop Devine's comments that:
"The homosexual lobby has been extremely effective in aligning itself with
minority groups. It is ever-present at the service each year for the Holocaust
memorial, as if to create ... the image of a group of people under persecution."
Who, other than the bishop, thinks the LGBT
community is not a minority group, and who, other than the bishop, disputes the
fact that thousands of LGBT people were murdered by the Nazis.
KEITH COWAN MBE, Antigua Street, Edinburgh
Contrary to what Bishop Devine suggests, intolerance of homosexuality within the
Christian tradition has a relatively short history. It is only briefly referred
to in the Bible and it was largely ignored by the Church for the first several
centuries of its establishment in Europe. This attitude changed only after wider
social attitudes did so – the Church was not a leader but a follower.
Modern Christianity is starting to reject this anomaly and prioritise the values
of love, tolerance, and – yes – the truth and goodness to which the bishop
refers. There are better ways to serve God than to obsess over what other people
do in bed.
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