Religious News: Christian Discrimination

Sack teachers who divorce or have gay partners
Archbishop of Westminster backs call to regulate home life of staff at Catholic schools

SENIOR teachers and governors at Catholic schools face the sack if they live with a partner without getting married or if they get divorced.
A new booklet, published by the bishops of England and Wales, says that teachers working in Catholic schools should also not marry divorcees or get married in register offices or in ceremonies which do not meet with the church’s approval.
Critics say that the diktat leaves teachers “uniquely vulnerable to religious discrimination” and that it breaches European equality laws.
The guidance, which has been approved by Vincent Nichols, the Archbishop of Westminster and leader of the church in England and Wales, singles out unmarried people living in “non-chaste” relationships.
It says that senior teachers in “a partnership of intimacy with another person, outside a form of marriage approved by the church...can be removed from office.”
The standards would also apply to junior teachers who aspire to promotion and to people in gay relationships, a spokesman for the Catholic Bishops Conference of England and Wales said.
“The expectation is that [school] leaders and those who aspire to leadership positions will make substantive life choices that are in conformity with the gospel and the teaching of the Catholic church,” said a spokesman... 

The Sunday Times. 
This is so wonderfully shameless in its sheer hypocrisy it's hilarious.
You may want to compare and contrast it to this story in Friday's Telegraph;

Government 'powerless to protect teachers from sack over gay marriage'
Michael Gove fears that the Government could be powerless to stop primary school teachers being sacked for refusing to teach gay marriage, it emerged last night. 

Regular viewers may not be particularly surprised to hear the source for this silly bit of scare-mongering is... Coalition For Marriage!

Coalition 4 Marriage: Nobody Knows What's Going On In My Mind But Me

Word cloud based on the bios of Coalition For Marriage followers.

Brilliant.

With thanks to Coalition 4 Equal Marriage. x

Fagburn: Here Is The Gay Non-News

Dong! There's not much happening in Gayland to be honest. I won't keep you, so here's today's non-news in brief. 

Dong! Lots of people over 40 are getting overexcited about David Bowie releasing a surprise new single, Where Are We Now?, on his 66th birthday. It's not that good, really, but hurrah for nostalgia and that. Rumours of a surprise Gary Glitter comeback tomorrow unconfirmed.

Dong! Far more importantly it's Elvis's birthday today, which we always celebrate at Fagburn Mansions. Here's a Spotify playlist of some of my favourite Elvis songs I made a while ago. It's rimming ace.

Dong! Coalition 4 Marriage have released another ComRes poll on gay marriage. Telegraph dutifully salivates. Here's why, once again, it's really dodgy and goes against all the other research on this. And here's why ComRes/C4M polls can't be trusted. Not sure if this predictable anti-gay tripe even warrants comment anymore, but y'know...

Dong! Things are so desperate that another minor US celebrity no-one in the UK has heard of has come out is "newsworthy". Gay Idiot News dutifully salivates. More from Gay Star News: "Another Christian homophobe has said something stupid and homophobic today, almost certainly. GSN are so politically braindead, things like this are all that we get angry about. Plus more of the usual advertorial, press releases, days-old "news", general cringe-making naffness, and power-serving, Orientalist, hegemonic badly-written junk. Yay!"

Dong!: Even Richard Littlejohn in the Daily Mail couldn't raise my righteous ire today. "After getting their cassocks in a twist over female bishops, the Church of England has given the thumbs up to gay bishops — but only if they agree to remain celibate. I don’t want to sound difficult but, apart from God, how will anyone be able to check?" True, obviously. Note to the Church of England hierarchy, even Richard Littlejohn thinks all this is quite laughable.

Dong! A thick gay posh twat has been left - quite literally - stunned after finding out the BNP is full of bigots.  

Dong! Liked this piece, Columnism, by Ulrike Meinhof on how newspapers' "radical" columnists "function as a pressure release valve..." Much more to be said on the vanity and cliqueyness of "star columnists", and how this is antithetical to claims of being of the left, which I hope to wibble on about some day. (Thanks to Pierce Penniless x).

Dong! Why don't you just switch off your computer and go and do something less boring instead?

Gay Marriage Polls: Are They Balls? Agree/Disagree

I return once again, with a heavy heart, to the issue of gay marriage. There is more rather one-eyed polling by the campaign against gay marriage, dutifully reported the Telegraph. The way polling commissioned by the lobby opposed to gay marriage is reported by the newspapers and those commissioning it is almost a masterclass in poor interpretation of polls.
Firstly we have the problems of polls conducting using agree/disagree statements, which risk bias in the direction of the statement asked (which I have written about at length here) and often give contradictory answers if properly balanced with statements in the other direction. For example, in this poll 62% of people agreed with the statement “marriage should continue to be definied as a life-long exclusive commitment between a man and a woman”. The campaign against gay marriage have consistently focused on this question and interpreted this as meaning that 62% of people are opposed to gay marriage. However, the same poll found people agreeing by 44% to 38% that “legalising gay marriage is important because maintaining the distinction between civil partnerships and marriage worsens public attitudes towards gay people”. One could just as easily cherry pick that question from the poll and claim that more people support than oppose gay marriage...

Now we have that hoary old chestnut of a poll showing people want a referendum on gay marriage. As previously discussed, if asked in an opinion poll people want a referendum on almost everything – unsurprisingly, given that questions on referendums basically boil down to “would you like to have a say on this or should it be left to the hated politicians to decide”. It doesn’t mean there is some huge untapped demand for a referendum on that particular issue, people support a referendum on anything you ask about (the one exception I have managed to track down was a MORI poll back in 2001 that found people did not want a referendum on abolishing the monarchy)
Why do I keep coming back to this? I think its mostly the consistently credulous and one-sided reporting of polls on gay marriage in some sections of the press. Readers of some newspapers could be forgiven for thinking that the polling showed that the public were opposed to gay marriage, when any fair minded look at the broad range of polling on the issue would show that the balance of opinion is broadly positive towards it.

YouGov's Anthony Wells writing on his blog, UK Polling Report.

Well, worth reading in full for a demolition job on those misleading ComRes polls for Coalition 4 Marriage that are always bigged up in the Daily Telegraph.

Coalition 4 Marriage: We Done Made A Video!

A predictably brilliant and extremely persuasive video from Coalition 4 Marriage.
Although, not actually being retarded myself, it's hard to make out what point it's trying to make, but apparently that gay marriage thing is wrong, and we must return to a lost Eden where children have sex and put cardboard boxes on their heads.
Praise be.
Great stuff guys!

Marriage: Video Nasty

                   
                   
                   
                   
Hilarious short fillum from inside and outide the Coalition For Marriage "mass rally" at Conservative party conference.
Presented by Michael White - the Guardian's political editor and a notorious heterosexual.
Surprisingly the audience look like a bunch of scary swivel-eyed freaks.
Best bit is when Princess Michael finds a gay Tory coming out of the hall - "Oh. You picked the wrong team".


PS Here's the BBC TV News report. Ann Widdecombe in wonderfully barking pantomime dame mode. Hey Ann! If you like straight marriage so much why don't you have one?
               

Marriage: Boy George Speaks

“I am a supporter of it, I will be voting for it when it comes to the House of Commons, but it will be a free vote issue – in other words every MP will vote according to their conscience – and I will vote according to my conscience in favour of gay marriage.”

George Osborne on Sky News, quoted in the Telegraph. 
The Tories are nice, yes.
They support the gay marriage.
While sacking public sector workers, cutting public services and slashing benefits, the impact of which on gay men's life is so much much greater than some silly legal semantics.
Wow, the Tories are so nice.
This government is engaged in the most relentless class war since the Thatcher years.
But they like gay marriage.
Fuck yeah!

We need guns.

PS Telegraph piece illustrated with some gay hands, natch.

PPS Yet another bogus voodoo poll from the homophobic lie-machine that is Coalition 4 Marriage, given credence in the Independent On Sunday. FFS! This heaven gives me migraine.

PPS 'Osborne in £10bn benefit cut vow'. BBC News. That's further to the £18bn they've already said they'd cut. Hoorah for government by in no way out-of-touch posh millionaires!
Ah, Ravachol, where are you when we need you most?

Update: Bit of nudge-nudge, wink-winkery in Monday's Daily Mail.

Caketopper Watch: The Sun

Lovely gay caketopper here in The Sun.
Fittingly it's illustrating an un/think piece from Colin Hart of Coalition 4 Marriage fame, which manages to rehash all your favourite lies and cliches.
Drop dead, bigot.

PS The Independent continues its noble tradition of publishing painfully unfunny "satirical" articles about gay marriage. Fuck.

Marriage: Hate Mail

'A newlywed couple have being bombarded with internet hate mail after posing on the steps of 10 Downing Street to hand in a 550,000-signature petition against gay marriage' 

Daily Telegraph.
Remember these two hate-filled fucks?
Some robust messages have been left on god-bothering groom Rhys Curnow's Facebook page.
What was delivering the petition if not delivering half a million items of hate mail? 
Seems like a fair swap to me.
"And as ye would that men should do to you, do ye also to them likewise."

Update: Below from the Daily Mail who are so not happy about this.

Only a queen would pick someone up on their wedding dress being polyester...
The Mail are of course oblivious to the fact that "a sad and lonely death" is a paraphrase after the infamous piece they ran by Jan Moir after Stephen Gately's death. 
Irony is wasted on stupid bigots.

Letters: 'Bigots Branded Bigots' Bemoans Leading Bigot

Sir, I am sorry that Nick Herbert feels “distant” from the Church over the highly divisive issue of same-sex marriage which his government has forced into public debate (“Gay Tory challenges ‘intolerant’ Church”, report, June 16).
This debate is not about the dignity and rights of gay and lesbian people, who already have the benefits of marriage through civil partnerships, but about a change in the definition of marriage for everyone.
Does he realise the extent to which this so-called “consultation”, with no backing from his party’s manifesto, is leaving many people alienated and distant from his government? It is in fact the supporters of traditional marriage who have been accused of bigotry and homophobia — the kind of intolerant and judgmental language he talks about in his interview.
Lord Carey Of Clifton
House of Lords

Letter to The Times from the former Archbishop of Canterbury - and current Coalition 4 Marriage mouthpiece.

Oh, do piss off!

Happy Father's Day: From Coalition 4 Marriage

This charming ad has appeared on a few websites today.
Though it doesn't make it clear, it's a reference to birth certificates in Spain now listing Progenitor A and B instead of mother and father, apparently.
The horror, the horror!
It appears on Guido Fawkes blog with a supportive editorial once again showing that this self-styled "libertarian" has no grasp of libertarianism. 

PS The ASA has rejected complaints against Coalition 4 Marriage's last ad. More during the week as the news is embargoed - though the Telegraph have broken it...

PPS And today's gay marriage op-eds include... Nick Cohen in The Observer, A church fit only for bigots and hypocrites, and in the Sunday Telegraph, Will gay marriage bring on The Rapture? (Or something).

Gay Marriage: 500,000 Bigots Can't Be Wrong!

Coalition 4 Marriage's petition was delivered by a newly-wed couple - nice touch.

Tweet Of The Day: Clicktivism

Via @bengoldacre

These internet petitions really do make me despair sometimes.
It's a sign not of political engagement, but of a highly depoliticised culture.
Maybe I should be touched by the naivety, but do people really think that, say, the mayor of St Petersburg is going to stop doing something homophobic because some fags in the wicked West have clicked on a button to say they think he's being homophobic?
Sadly, I've a feeling the only e-petition that anyone's ever taken much notice of has been the Coalition 4 Marriage one.

PS Yup, there's not much in the papers worth commenting on today. "Laters."

Marriage: Here Is The Latest Non-News

'The Advertising Standards Agency has been accused of bias after its chairman publicly campaigned for gay marriage while it has placed advertisements from opponents of a change in the law under investigation.'

An almost record-breakingly inelegant and unwieldy sentence from the Daily Telegraph there. 
So what's the story?

'The watchdog rejected calls for Lord Smith of Finsbury – the former Labour cabinet minister, Chris Smith – to resign last night but accepted that he had a “conflict of interest” on the matter and therefore would not vote.

'It emerged last week that the ASA is investigating an advertisement from the Coalition For Marriage (C4M), which campaigns against changing the law, following claims it is “offensive” to homosexual people...' 

Erm, the "calls for him to resign" have come from one single - and seriously barking - blogger.
Since when did deluded rants from the wilder fringes of the blogosphere carry any political weight?
Fagburn hereby calls for David Cameron to commit hara-kiri live on The One Show on Friday whilst whistling Dixie.
Are you going to turn that into a news story?

Coalition 4 Marriage: Romantic Fictions

The ASA’s decision to investigate complaints about a series of ads by the Coalition for Marriage that are appearing in the press and online has prompted some comment in the media, the blogosphere and in other social media.  We would like to clarify that the fact that we are investigating the complaints does not mean we will necessarily ‘uphold’ them, leading to the ad being banned.  We are not at that decision-making stage yet and will, as always, take into account the responses we receive.  The right of advertisers responsibly to express their views will undoubtedly be an important factor in our assessment of whether the ads are likely to cause serious or widespread offence.  We are also looking at whether the ads are misleading.
One of the bloggers on whose blog the ads appeared has raised concerns about us contacting him as part of our investigation.  We have long found it useful to ask, in confidence, publishers of ads subject to ‘offence’ complaints for their views, because they can give us a valuable insight into whether or not their readers are likely to be offended.  They are not the subject of our investigation, as we have made clear to them in this case, and they are not compelled to respond.  Many of the adjudications published on our websites bear that out.  Here are examples of ASA rulings where publishers have responded and we have agreed with them that the ads under investigation were acceptable, where some have regretted publishing the ad in question and where the publisher has declined to comment.
We cannot comment further on our ongoing investigation before we reach a decision, but we will very carefully assess the issues at hand before we publish our findings.

Advertising Standards Authority statement. 
Issued after an in-no-way hysterical story in The Daily Mail,

Christian blogger plunged into free speech row after being told to justify 'offensive and homophobic' anti-gay marriage advert

'A Christian blogger is at the centre of a free speech row after posting an 'offensive' advert on behalf of a petition against plans to legalise gay marriage. Advertising watchdogs have demanded an explanation from the writer, known by the pen name Archbishop Cranmer, after they received 24 complaints. The Advertising Standards Authority is asking that he respond to claims that the message - which asks viewers to 'Help us keep the true meaning of marriage' - is homophobic.

The Mail has since updated their article online to include two quotes from the ASA statement, but have somewhat missed one of the main points and left in the accusation made in the opening paragraph that they "demanded an explanation" from the blogger.
Ho-hum..

PS You should check out the Archbishop Cramner blog - he's every bit as crazy as he is scary.
The fact that 24 people complained about the ads - a pretty disappointing figure - comes from an ASA reply to him. 10 said they found it "offensive", 14 contested the use of a poll had that said 70% of people oppose gay marriage.

Family Values: Natural's Not In It

'Throughout history and in virtually all human societies marriage has always been the union of a man and a woman." So says the Coalition for Marriage, whose petition against same-sex unions in the UK has so far attracted 500,000 signatures. It's a familiar claim, and it is wrong. Dozens of societies, across many centuries, have recognised same-sex marriage. In a few cases, before the 14th century, it was even celebrated in church.
This is an example of a widespread phenomenon: myth-making by cultural conservatives about past relationships. Scarcely challenged, family values campaigners have been able to construct a history that is almost entirely false...

A handy breakdown of the historical arguments that the family has always been in a state of flux by George Monbiot in The Guardian.
There's a very interesting Radio 4 programme here on Declinism - the belief that something or everything is not as good as it used to be.

Marriage Equality: U-turns & Avalanches

"A survey by pollsters ComRes suggested Mr Cameron’s strong support for same-sex marriage could cost his party up to 30 seats in a general election. The UK Independence Party (Ukip) stands to benefit most from the drop in Tory support on this issue, the survey indicates, in what will be seen as further evidence that the Prime Minister is concentrating on policies that fail to appeal in his party’s heartlands."

The Sunday Telegraph.
This factoid was dropped into an interview with Boris Johnson.
Apropos of nothing, as the Telegraph had pointed out earlier in the article; "Mr Johnson, who takes on Labour’s Ken Livingstone in this week’s mayoral election in London, does not mention issues such as gay marriage and the environment – policies that Mr Cameron has promoted recently, earning him criticism from his party."
The uncitated 30-seats claim is presumably extrapolated from a highly dubious ComRes/Catholic Voices poll.
EDIT: Nope, it was taken from this ComRes/Christian Institute poll, which wasn't published til May, so the "exclusive" result was fed to the journalist. 
That put support for gay marriage at half of that of two other recent polls.
ie The claim is highly dubious and I imagine it's just been fed to the journalist by those well-known liars at Coalition 4 Marriage. 
Needless to say the Mail On Sunday is also hammering away today on the now familiar "vote loser" riff - and are also making hysterical claims they don't back up and that don't stand up that I bet they got from you-know-who.
'U-turn Tory MPs tell constituents: 'We were wrong on gay marriage' in bid to win back voters''
"David Cameron is under intense pressure to ditch his gay marriage initiative amid claims that Tory MPs fear they are 'haemorrhaging' votes over the issue...
"The pressure on Mr Cameron has been increased by warnings that a Tory rebellion in the Commons would eclipse last year's EU referendum revolt, when 81 Conservatives defied the Prime Minister. "Backbenchers are reporting an 'avalanche' of protests from Conservative supporters over the gay marriage initiative championed by Mr Cameron...
"MPs have been so stunned by the scale of the protests that a secret group has been set up by Tory MPs at Westminster to force Mr Cameron to back down. Many of the MPs admit that the 'avalanche' of letters from the Tory grass roots was forcing them to change their views."
There may have been an "avalanche" of letters about this - gay marriage must be a green light to the green ink brigade.
MPs of all parties are quite used to receiving these cranks' hatemail and probably ignore them - just as they ignore most e-petitions.
But how many MPs have actually changed their views?
Interestingly the Mail On Sunday could only find one who claimed this, Philip Lee, the newly-elected nobody for Bracknell. 
That number again - one.
The Mail make another assertion; "The Mail on Sunday has been told that Chief Whip Patrick McLoughlin has privately assured anxious Tory backbenchers that the Prime Minister's same-sex marriage plan will 'not come to a vote'.
"The MPs say Mr McLoughlin told them the controversial proposal will be 'kicked into the long grass'."
As the crisis for David Cameron continues, both within his own party and amongst an electorate with far more pressing problems, I wouldn't be surprised if the Mail On Sunday have actually got this bit right.

Coalition 4 Marriage: Behind You!

The Independent compares and contrasts Coalition 4 Marriage and Coalition For Equal Marriage; "One side appears well-funded; the other is a shoestring operation."
Nina Lakhani goes digging for the dirt on C4M.
Though she doesn't unearth much that's new, it's worth repeating all the same.

• Coalition For Marriage are basically being run and bankrolled by five shady and sinister evangelical Christian groups.

• They work out of the same building as the Christian Medical Fellowship - here's how much they hate queers. 

• Directors include: Dr Don Horrocks, the head of public affairs for the Evangelical Alliance "which in its latest annual review boasts 300 conversations in the corridors of power and regular contact with 40 MPs and peers".

• Nola Leach, the head of the cash-rich Christian Action Research and Education (CARE) "which, according to its annual report, spent £338,000 last year influencing public policy".

• Andrea Minichiello Williams, a barrister and founder of Christian Concern and the Christian Legal Centre, "which funds high-profile cases 'to protect the freedoms of Christians in society'" - like that mad crucifix lady.

• And Norman Wells, a director of Family Education Trust/Family And Youth Concern who tell lies in schools.

• Colin Hart, C4M's campaign manager, also runs the Christian Institute, "a charity which has been criticised for its overt political campaigning. Adoption experts condemned its organ donor-style cards which read: 'In the event of my death, I do not want my children to be adopted by homosexuals.'"

Stonewall's Ben Summerskill comments wrily: "We remain confused about who is behind the so-called Coalition for Marriage and equally confused about their motives. It would be much more refreshing if they just admitted that they didn't like homosexuals."

Country Life: Too Many Syllables

Some bullying members of the militant homosexual lobby are on the virtual warpath because Country Life have run an advert for Coalition 4 Marriage.
Many people are leaving complaints on the magazine's Facebook page. 
Good for them - though I can't say I'm particularly arsed about it.
Is anyone surprised Country Life have done this?
This is the third place to my knowledge where C4M has tried to place adverts - and they all show who they see as their natural constituencies.
Guido Fawkes blog has run a banner ad - take a look at any comments section and you'll see most of his readers are really nasty and scarily right-wing.  
I got into a brief Twitter row with editor Paul Staines about this.
He defended his actions by tweeting; "It is an advert by pro-marriage Christians. Not homophobic. I ran adverts for Ken Livingstone. Advertisement <> endorsement."
When asked if he did endorse it, came the reply; "Don't know, don't care. I just count the cash and re-stock the wine cellar."
The Womens' Institute were widely praised for refusing to run an ad for C4M last month.
They used the opposite argument to Mr Fawkes; "As WI Life is the national membership magazine, any promotion of your campaign could be seen as an endorsement... to members. We do also welcome all women to the WI and this campaign could offend many of our members."
Good for them.
The WI are often caricatured as being hilariously Middle England, and I guess C4M may have thought they'd be a shoo-in.
It's instructive and satisfying that that is no longer the case.
And Country Life?
It's the inhouse magazine of Upper England.
Though I can't pretend to read it every week, it's essentially a series of adverts for multi-million pound houses, broken up with advertorial about multi-million pound houses - note the cover above shows Country Life's idea of a smaller country house.
Plus there's a few pictures of posh totty debs, and some doubtlessly positively gripping articles about hunting, shooting, dogging and farming.
Of course Country Life ran the ad!
What do you expect from the Coalition 4 Inbreeding?

Update: Email from Julia Dawson, Complaints Executive, Advertising Standards Authority, on Tuesday, saying the ASA are to investigate complaints that the "70%" claim on the C4M ads is misleading...