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UK Secularists and Gays Demand Marginalization of Christians

By Hilary White

LONDON, April 4, 2007 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Triumphing after last month’s passage of the Sexual Orientation Regulations, the UK’s secularists and homosexual activist groups are demanding the curtailing of Christian influence in British society.

Terry Sanderson, head of the National Secularist Society, has produced an editorial calling Cormac Cardinal Murphy-O’connor’s assertions that public expression of religious belief is under attack in Britain, “breathtakingly manipulative.”

The Cardinal gave a lecture March 28, in which he warned that the secularizing trend will marginalize Christians. He said that religious freedom is more than the freedom to worship, “It is the freedom to serve the common good according to the convictions of our faith. It seems to me we are being asked to accept a different version of our democracy, one in which diversity and equality are held to be at odds with religion.”

Sanderson accused the Vatican of “interfering” with the policies of other countries in its capacity as “a supposed independent state.”

Sanderson writes, “The Catholic Church has happily allied itself with just about every totalitarian regime that has emerged over the centuries in Europe.” He suggests, “It’s time for the Catholic Church – and all the other religious bodies that seek to impose their will on democratic governments – to be firmly put in their place.”

The Gay and Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) has issued a press release saying that the Catholic Church is “not fit” to run schools. The statement comes as a response to a House of Commons Select Committee report claiming that Catholic schools are not doing enough to counter “homophobic bullying”.

George Broadhead, secretary of GALHA said, “We’ve seen homophobia in Catholic circles rising at a terrifying rate over the past few months. The Pope is almost hysterical on the topic and the British Catholic hierarchy is constantly agitating to retard gay rights.”

“For the sake of these children…should be protected from the promotion of bigotry in schools, the Catholic Church should be stripped of its educational establishments.”

A 2004 report from the UK Department of Health defines “heterosexism” as “the presumption that everyone is heterosexual.”

The report goes on to give examples: “The assumption that a male pupil will have, or be looking for, a girlfriend; or that a female parent, when talking about her partner, is referring to a male.”

Another report from the same year by the Department of Education and Skills, talks about, “the importance of addressing schools’ predominantly ‘heteronormative’ cultures, which cajole, persuade or force pupils to conform to particular heterosexual identities and behaviours.”

UK Secularists and Gays Demand Marginalization of Christians (http://www.lifesite.net/ldn/2007/apr/07040408.html)