Protesting The Pope’s Prejudices
February 2, 2010 No Comments
The Pope has declared that the UK’s attempt at equality, in the form of the UK Equality Bill, “violates natural law”.
Churches in the UK worry that they would be forced to hire gay and transsexual people.
Because of the Pope’s declaration against equality, protests are being planned for his visit to the UK later this year, the first papal visit since 1982.
An MP on the Joint Committee on Human Rights says that ”Religious people can be reassured that there is nothing in the Equality Bill which imposes gay priests on religions, but it does protect the general workforce from prejudiced employers”.
When the Pope arrives protests will be organised by The National Secular Society and include ”gay groups, victims of clerical abuse, feminists, family planning organisations and groups supporting abortion choice, among others.”
I wonder if it’s time we all stopped worrying about the Pope. People always react to him with such anger, but don’t we already know what he is going to say? I expected this reaction from him and it doesn’t surprise me.
As outrageous as his statement is, the Pope doesn’t have nearly as much power as people give him credit for and the fact that the UK is putting this bill forward is a great sign of how our society has progressed beyond its conservative origins.
I think it’s time people stopped giving the Pope more credit than he is due and focus instead on celebrating this new bill, encouraging their own MPs to vote for it, and getting involved in the political processes that fight discrimination and enourage equality.
