Pity the poor Christian, reduced to the level of the squalid commoners, their special status, and the special treatment that came with it, stripped away, one lawsuit at a time. What a shame.
Christians in the United Kingdom are facing increasing marginalization and oppression under new laws originally intended to safeguard equality, Christian leaders have warned.. . .The conference explored the court ruling last week involving Gary McFarlane, a relationship counsellor with Relate Avon who was dismissed for telling his employers that he could not counsel same-sex couples because of his Christian beliefs.He lost his legal bid to bring his dismissal before the Court of Appeal after Lord Justice Laws ruled that the Christian faith was “subjective” and “incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence”, and that it would be “divisive, capricious and arbitrary” to protect a moral position held on purely religious grounds.
Poor Gary. He got a job he knew he wouldn't be willing to do and then was fired for refusing to do said job. How dare they! How dare his employers expect him, a Christian, to do the job he was hired to do. Can you imagine!
Can you imagine if I told my boss that while I am fully aware that using computers is essential to being a secretary in this day and age, my religion forbids me from doing so, please continue to employ me to not do my job?
Um, yeah.
My heart just bleeds for Mr. McFarlane, doomed to have no venue in which to discriminate against homosexuals. Really, it's tragic.
Btw, how cool is "Lord Justice Laws"? I bet he wears a cape!
*[redacted's] email sig is "Always extrapolate the Durden". Cracks me up every time I see it.
There are pharmacists who refuse to fill certain prescriptions (morning after pills, birth control, etc.). Luckily, you can just cross the street to the next pharmacy, and odds are they'll help you.
ReplyDeleteThis part: "Lord Justice Laws ruled that the Christian faith was “subjective” and “incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence”, and that it would be “divisive, capricious and arbitrary” to protect a moral position held on purely religious grounds." I want to print it out on expensive paper and mail it as a happy-thought-of-the-day to Sam Harris.
ReplyDeleteAlso, I definitely did a double-take at Laws's name. He sounds like a comic book character. An *awesome* one.
While I agree with you about this specific example, Britain really does have serious free speech problems about any views that are regarded as too offensive. For example, this article about a preacher arrested for preaching about how God hates gays: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/newstopics/religion/7668448/Christian-preacher-arrested-for-saying-homosexuality-is-a-sin.html and this article about a fellow convicted for having spread pro-atheist tracts: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/crime/atheist-given-asbo-for-leaflets-mocking-jesus-1952985.html
ReplyDelete