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...a blog by Richard Flowers

Wednesday, December 01, 2010

Day 3622 (again): On World AIDS Day… Some People SHOULD be Ashamed

Wednesday:


December 1st is World AIDS Day.

Across the world, people with HIV continue to face not just the prospect of a horrible disease, but also genuine prejudice, that can cost them their jobs, their homes, even their lives.

And yet today, the former Beardy Weirdy of Canterbury has decided that he's going to IGNORE that and bang on about HIS so called "right" to EXTRA SPECIAL treatment being under attack.

These SPECIAL "rights" include the "right" to hate gay daddies, the "right" to ignore employment law and the "right" to a free seat in the House of Lords Club (where he very nearly never bothers to show up).

He has set up a special website to tell the stories of some of the people who have SUFFERED for their Christian faith. (Please note: like they say in the movies, no people suffered actual SUFFERING in the course of these stories.)

I should like to direct you to Mr Unity at the Ministry of Truth who can explain better than me why none of these people deserve anything but your choice of pity or contempt.

This morning the The Today Programme programme chose to interview one of these people, a Mr Gary McFarlane, a man who was sacked from his job when he refused to treat gay daddies with equal respect because it "conflicted with his religious principles". This decision was judged correct by the employment tribunal and by the court of appeal.

Would the Today Programme have interviewed a man who was sacked for erecting a huge burning cross on Mr McFarlane's front drive and claimed it was because HE was just expressing his "religious principles"? I rather think not.

Mr McFarlane's problem is not that he is BAD because he is a Christian; no, he is obviously bad because he is a BAD CHRISTIAN.

You are probably familiar with the story of the Good Samaritan. It is a PARABLE told by Mr Jesus, and in the story a Jewish gentleman is mugged. Several other Jewish gentlepersons go past and, shockingly, ignore the crime! And then along came a Samaritan gentleman and he looked after the injured man. Hooray, a happy ending. What you ALSO ought to know, though, is that the Jewish people and the Samaritan people did not get on. They had, what you might call, "religious differences". So you see the POINT of the story is that the Samaritan was GOOD not just because he HELPED a Jewish person, but because he OVERCAME PREJUDICE in order to do so.

I think you can see where I am going here.


Is it wrong of Christian people to say that they are not ashamed? No, not really.

I have no problem with the Beardy Weirdy wanting to wear a dress to work. Why shouldn't he, if he wants to.

The Liberal Democrats are VERY TOLERANT of WEIRD SEXUAL PRACTICES, even including CELIBACY. What you do or don't do in the privacy of your own home/dungeon/secluded part of the common is nobody's business but your own.

And if all two billion Christians worldwide are doomed to be fed to the RAVENOUS BUGBLATTER BEAST of TRAAL for their failure to appease the GREAT GREEN ARKLESEIZURE, then honestly that is a matter for their consciences and not mine. It's not like we can't all make up our own minds to believe our own made-up stuff. Just ask the FLYING SPAGHETTI MONSTER.

But today is a day for thinking about OTHER people who are worse off than you by LOTS, so it is TACTLESS and SELFISH and STUPID to try and stomp all over World AIDS Day.

And as Daddy said to Mr Paul earlier, it's not like you haven't GOT a Day in December for advertising your Christian beliefs, is it?

Best wishes for World AIDS Day!
.

7 comments:

Paul Walter said...

After reading comments from Ekklesia, Bishop of Croydon and others, I have withdrawn my name as a signatory of this declaration. I should never have signed it in the first place.

Millennium Dome said...

Dear Mr Paul,

I do genuinely think that that is sad. The vast majority of Christians (at least the ones I know) are honest, decent, intelligent folks like yourself, and if ANYONE should be saying they're not ashamed then it's you.

It's a real (pardon the pun) shame that it's YOU who feels you have to withdraw and not these people with NO shame who are hijacking your church.

Paul Walter said...

Thank you, MD - much appreciated.

By the way, You probably know that Lord Carey has not and never has had a beard - I presume the beard you attach to him is metaphoric!

Mary Reid said...

I notice that Carey said this: "The local council switches on 'winter lights' in place of Christmas decorations".

Odd really, because he lives in Kingston, and we are proud to have Christmas decorations (with Christmas symbols like stars) as well as a German Christmas Market in the centre of the town.

Mary Reid said...

Like Paul, I'm not ashamed of being a Christian but I am deeply ashamed of some of the things that are said and done in the name of Christianity. I'm grateful to MD for recognising that it is possible to be liberal and a Christian.

Paul Walter said...

Actually I think he lives in Newbury now Mary. And we have a big sign saying "Merry Christmas everyone" in the Mrrket Place plus a huge tree with luights.

Stephen Glenn said...

As one of that wierd wide church that is tolerated within the Liberal Democrats (ie one of those LGBT Christians) I'm glad that some of our Christian and Lib Dem friends above are as equally outraged about the highjacking of World AIDS Day for this purpose.

I'm not ashamed or either being a Christian or being gay, and I'm certainly not ashamed of being both. But I am ashamed of both sides taking general swipes at either of the opposing sides without looking at the particulars. We need more dialogue, more conversation and more understand between the two, so I guess I'd better get talking :)