Religious conscience should be protected says Melanie.

[Longcol]

not the singer melanie then??

thats what i thought with the thread title lol

 

Same here - I was expecting summat about Ruby Tuesday.

[plekhanov]

As usual Phillips is wrong "religious conscience" shouldn't be protected, conscience should be protected equally regardless of whether or not the individual concerned claims their conscience is influenced by a belief in a magic man who lives in the sky.

 

Phillips is also wrong as to the extent conscience should be protected, the right to free speech is of course fundamental and like many fundamental rights it's one labour seem neither understand or respect. There is however no such thing as a right to deliberately and conspicuously refuse to do your job and not get fired.

 

Firing somebody simply because you dislike their religion (or secular ideology) even though it in no way stops them doing their job is obviously wrong. Firing somebody because they refuse to perform essential aspects of their job is only to be expected and clearly just.

[rubydazzler]

Not even then. Being a vicar requires that you promote Christianity, whichever branch of it your vicarage happens to cover; therefore any beliefs you hold which do not fit Christianity, you may not promote in that job.

 

This is why Muslims generally don't apply for jobs as vicars, and it is also why they'd have no case for discrimination if they applied for one and were turned down.

Can you actually apply for a job as a vicar? Isn't it a bit like any profession, you have to do the appropriate training first? Surely being a Christian and having been educated at a seminary would be an essential requirement?

 

I think I know what you're getting at, political correctness run mad etc, I'm just being pedantic, I suppose. Also wondering why you've chosen to bring Muslims particularly into the question?

[HeadingNorth]

Also wondering why you've chosen to bring Muslims particularly into the question?

 

It would have been a bit silly to argue that a Christian can't go for a position as a vicar due to a religious conflict, now wouldn't it?

 

But I could just as easily have said a Shintoist, or a Hindu, or any of countless non-Christian religions. Islam is by far the biggest of them so it's the one that sprang to mind first.

[milquetoast1]

I agree too but what about the guy that got an ASBO for leaving religious satire in the chapel at John Lennon airport? His 'freedom' was curtailed because he upset someone.

I wont condone the actions of this guy, because they were immature and provocative.

 

Neither will I condone the actions of the chaplain, who should have simply thrown the cartoons in the bin, rather than deciding to take offence and going to the police.

 

In fact, when I received all the bumf directly into my home from the local churches just before Easter, one leaflet decorated with torture porn, I did indeed just drop it all in the bin.

 

More worrying is the fact that we have ditched medieval blasphemy laws, which had not been used in living memory, only to replace them with religious intolerance laws, which have now been used immediately and in such a trivial case.

 

The precedent has now been set so low that we have now effectively got the blasphemy laws back with nobs on. The professional ‘offence takers’ in religious communities will now feel that they have a strong new weapon to use against anyone who is critical or disapproving of them.

 

It really is quite silly, but since the precedent has been set perhaps I should take offence next time the church pushes some literature through my letterbox. Oh I forgot, only religious folk are allowed to be offended.

[milquetoast1]

The press has concentrated on Philippa Stroud's bat**** crazy views on homosexuality and demonology.

 

But there's another dimension to the story which has been highlighted by the Christian "think-tank" Ekklesia:

 

http://www.ekklesia.co.uk/node/12037

 

The New Frontiers Church that she attends, and of which her husband is one of the main leaders, teaches that a husband has ‘authority’ over his wife, and that a wife should submit to a husband's will in all things. The husband is seen as the 'servant leader'. I know this from close personal experience of the church, and that it runs incredibly deep in the church. Indeed, it is fundamental to their religious approach.

 

So, as Ekklesia are right to wonder, who would voters be electing in Sutton and Cheam - Philippa Stroud or her husband?

[Bloomdido]

In fact, when I received all the bumf directly into my home from the local churches just before Easter, one leaflet decorated with torture porn, I did indeed just drop it all in the bin.

 

I like that phrase. Maybe I should complain to the police the next time I am subject to images of almost naked men pierced with nails whilst hung on a wooden cross.

[Bloomdido]

The online Daily Mail has an article about Council Prayers before meetings that are being challenged by the NSS. Please visit tha article and vote in their should they / shouldn't they poll.