Tuesday 20 May 2008

‘lost’ has me quite lost.
smoke monsters, dead men talking.
no one needs to shave.

It must be the season for religious lunacy. A 15 year old boy has been charged under section five of the Public Order Act, which seeks to restrict signs that might be considered "threatening, abusive or insulting." for putting up a sign which read ‘Scientology is not a religion. It is a dangerous cult.’
Admittedly, the boy was asked to take the sign down, and refused, and was subsequently taken away by the bizzies. It seems to me, however, that the policeman could have employed a modicum of common sense and removed the sign himself.
On the other hand, one could argue that the sign was simply proclaiming the truth. There is an issue here of free speech, as we supposedly live in a country where we can express any opinion we wish.
It has become a little surreal that we have a so-called religion, based on the works of (let’s face it) a not very good science fiction writer, whose central ‘truth’ is that we are the descendants of aliens called Thetans who are some day coming back to get us. That may not be exactly right, but it’s something along those lines and is plainly nonsense. Added to that we now have a boy arrested for erecting a poster stating his version of the truth, which somehow conflicts with the law. This truth it is illegal to tell, it would appear.

Monday 19 May 2008

now, ‘snakes on a train’
is just not ‘snakes on a plane.’
trains; you can jump off.

I had begun to think that the lunatic religious fringe had quietened down lately and were behaving themselves but alas, no. The news this evening was full of the story of the lady registrar from Islington Council who is refusing to marry gay couples as it conflicts with her religious views.
When this was announced I was on the phone to my mother, and had to ask her to repeat what she was saying as the Ugly One was shouting at the TV screen, ‘Go and work somewhere else then, you crazy *****!’
‘Who’s that?’ said Mum.
‘It’s Barry,’ I said. ‘He’s shouting at the TV again.’
Apparently Mildred from South London rang the BBC to say she thought that the registrar had every right to refuse to conduct these ceremonies. No, Mildred. Sorry, luv. She has no right to refuse. It is her job. It is what she is paid to do. Maybe God will give her another job where she doesn’t have to deal with her own prejudices.
Later, no doubt in order to whip up some sort of onscreen storm, the BBC bussed in a representative of Stonewall, the Gay Rights Movement, and a spokesman for the Christian Institute.
Mr Stonewall made the very valid point that if a registrar refused to marry, for instance, an inter-racial couple, then it would be very likely that the registrar would be fired. Mr Christian Institute decided to ignore that point completely and harped on about how this lady had been a registrar for sixteen years and now evil legislation was forcing her to do something contrary to her beliefs.
One has also to ask the question, would any self-respecting gay couple really want to have such a narrow-minded bitter individual conducting their ceremony? I certainly wouldn’t.
Mr Christian Institute then made the point that no-one had been denied a ceremony, but surely, if every registrar in that office held the same religious views (and it is a possibility), people would obviously be denied ceremonies.
Common sense arrived in the form of an e-mail which stated that the vast majority of Christians in this country actually couldn’t give a rats arse about the issue.
I tend to side with them.