Politics

You may have read elsewhere about the shameful way that the House of Commons voted for Ed Balls' amendment to the Children, Schools and Families Bill, which means that the Catholics are crowing that they've won the right to teach a different version of sex education to other schools. Mark Steel (in the Independent) asked,

How can there be so many lunatics opposed to sex education? And apart from anything else, what makes them think a lesson about sex is going to make kids go out and immediately have sex? It's education about it, not an instruction to get it done before dinner break. Maybe they should demand an end to history lessons as well on the grounds that "I don't want my fourteen-year-old learning about Napoleon as he's too young to invade Italy."

It's tedious, hearing those in Parliament wittering on about "secularism", when they clearly haven't a clue what it means. But then, neither do a majority of religious leaders (including Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury) who complain about "aggressive secularism".

Personally, I'm feeling quite aggressive about the latest threat to secularism; John Denham, the Communities Secretary, has announced that a new panel of religious experts has been set up to advise the Government on making public policy decisions. I'd hoped that that sort of nonsense would have been dropped when Hazel Blears departed, but no.

If you don’t want Murphy O’Connor in the Lords, have you signed this petition?

From today’s NSS Newsline:

Murphy O'Connor must not be given a peerage

The Times reports today that the Government is considering offering a peerage to Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor, who is soon to retire as leader of the Catholic Church in England and Wales. This will be the first time a Catholic cleric has sat in Parliament since the reformation.
 
The Times says that "The prospect of offering Cardinal Murphy-O'Connor a life peerage is understood to have been discussed during Gordon Brown's meeting with the Pope at the Holy See last week."

Murphy O'Connor will bring the Vatican's reactionary, homophobic, misogynistic and manipulative agenda right into the heart of our parliament.

But worse than that, Murphy O'Connor appears to be being rewarded when he should be on the grill being asked to explain his activities in relation to the foul child abusing priest 'Father' Michael Hill.

Encouragingly, US President Barrack Obama’s inaugural speech included the words, “We are a nation of Christians and Muslims, Jews and Hindus – and non-believers.” The IHEU reports, “This is believed to be a first for a United States President.”

This is from Terry Sanderson’s editorial on the NSS’s Newsline, the weekly e-news from the National Secular Society. To read more, go to the NSS website. To get Newsline in your inbox, sign up on the NSS site.

Every person in Britain who values the secular nature of our society will be alarmed and, indeed, frightened, by a publication this week from the Institute of Public Policy Research (IPPR). Entitled Faith in the Nation, it is a collection of essays by “senior faith leaders” which begins with a foreword by the Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Mr Brown, like most of the other contributors, invokes the census figures as his starting point, which enables him to assert: “One message comes across clearly and consistently: that religious belief will continue to be an important component of our shared British identity as it evolves, and that British society can and does draw strength from its diverse faith communities.” This is the first of many lies and dissemblings in this book.

The One Law for All campaign against Sharia law in Britain is to be launched at the House of Lords on International Human Rights Day, December 10, 2008 from 4:00 to 5:00pm.