Åsiktsfrihet krymper för kristna i UK?

Yttrandefriheten i Storbritannien verkar, bl a genom hate speech-lagar, ha varit på upphällningen ett tag. (Och här i Sverige avskedades härom året en chef på migrationsverket för att denne privat bloggade om Israels rätt att existera.)

Melanie Phillips beskrev i sin krönika nyligen hur en som i en predikan sagt att homosexualitet är en synd sattes sju timmar i häkte under anti-diskrimineringslagen för att ha använt "abusive or insulting words or behaviour", samt fortsätter:

"Anyone who says homosexuality is not normal is [...] thrown to the wolves as a bigot.

This is what recently happened to the then Conservative parliamentary candidate Philip Lardner.

He said churches should not be forced to have practising homosexual clergy and Christians should not be penalised for politely saying that homosexuality is ‘wrong’.

He also said that he would always support the rights of homosexuals to be treated fairly and to live as they wanted in private, but he would not accept that their behaviour was ‘normal’ or encourage children to indulge in it.

For this expression of traditional Christian — and, indeed, liberal — values, he was not only deselected as a Tory candidate at the speed of light on the grounds that his remarks were ‘deeply offensive and unacceptable’, but suspended from his job as a primary school teacher."

Mina reflektioner: Är denna intolerans något som sker för att islamkritik alls ska kunna ske? Sån döms väl ändå, lika omedelbart, ut som islamofobi? Hur ofta brukar något liknande detta drabba Storbritanniens muslimer?

Avslutningsvis hävdar Phillips följande:

"Far from their historic role in defending the bedrock values of this society, the Tories have thus put themselves on the side of the illiberal onslaught on freedom of conscience.

Of course, true prejudice and bigotry are wrong, whether towards homosexuals or anyone else.

But the decent impulse to protect the rights of gay people is very different from trying to destroy the bedrock values of our society.

Yet, that is precisely what it has become. As a result, Britain is turning from a liberal Christian country — whose liberalism is rooted in its religious tradition — into an illiberal, oppressive secular state with no room for religious conscience."

Andra bloggar om: samhälle, politik, kristendom, yttrandefrihet, religion, Storbritannien