Tony v Benny

Fresh from doing bugger all to help the situation in the Middle East and (apparently) campaigning to become the first President of the European Union, Tony Blair has set his stall out as a standard bearer for gay rights.

In an interview for Attitude, a title which I can't say I am that familiar with, Tony Blair had the following to say to the Pope:

“There are many good and great things the Catholic Church does, and there are many fantastic things this Pope stands for, but I think what is interesting is that if you went into any Catholic Church, particularly a wellattended one, on any Sunday here and did a poll of the congregation, you’d be surprised at how liberal-minded people were.”

“Now, that doesn’t mean to say there’s not still a lot of homophobia and a lot of things to be done. But the fact that it is unacceptable for any mainstream political party to be anything other than on the side of equality and respect is, in a way, the biggest change. The items of individual legislation matter a lot, but I think it’s the general shift in climate that is perhaps the most important point.”

“When people quote the passages in Leviticus condemning homosexuality, I say to them — if you read the whole of the Old Testament and took everything that was there in a literal way, as being what God and religion is about, you’d have some pretty tough policies across the whole of the piece.”

This contrasts somewhat with the view of the Catholic church leadership, with Pope Benedict XVI having previously described homosexuality as:

"more or less strong tendency ordered toward an intrinsic moral evil."

Now for me, it sounds like the Pope's stance is pretty unequivocal: If you are gay, you are on a bearing to evil. I wouldn't hold my breath for a change of heart on the part of everyone's favourite pontiff. Nice to see good old Tony keeping his face in the paper though - even if he is fighting a losing battle.

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The Pope and Africa

After Pope Benedict XVI's latest public comments regarding HIV/AIDS, several (including myself, though not yet publicly) have been quick to criticise the thoughts of the man. For an alternative view, see here. Just for reference, he said that AIDS in Africa is:

"a tragedy that cannot be overcome by money alone, that cannot be overcome through the distribution of condoms, which even aggravates the problems."

Where to begin? I guess with some facts.

• Africa is the area of the world most affected by HIV and AIDS, to the tune of 24 million people (for reference, that's nearly 5 times the population of Scotland).
• Catholicism in Africa has, since 1900, risen by a staggering 670%, from 1.9m to 139m followers.

So, there's an issue there. On the one hand, aid agencies etc are passing out condoms, telling people in Africa that if they are having sex they must use them or are in danger of contracting the virus. On the other, the Pope and Catholic missionaries, who have forever preached abstinence outside marriage and that contraception is tantamount to abortion. You see the difficulty. When the man styled as God's representative on Earth tells you you can't do something, pretty sure 139 million people are going to listen.

But the problem with the Pope's approach to sex is not that abstinence is not a good weapon in the battle against AIDS and HIV (if you don't have sex, you won't contract the disease that way). And this is the theological part. It appears that His Holiness does not recognise the inherent flaw in his own theology - the human condition.

For centuries, Christianity has preached the weakness, the vulnerability of man. Abstinence works, yes, as weapon in the battle. But it fails far more often in the shape of human weakness. And you simply have to look at the number of Catholic Priests involved in sex scandals to realise that Catholicism is not immune to this weakness.

The Pope and the Catholic Church must face a new reality. There must recognise the power and responsibility of the position of the Pope. They must also recognise the global challenges that face us - AIDS in Africa and, to the same extent, environmental degradation. And they must recognise that they are in a position to help influence not only decision-making in those fields but also action.

Until then, we can only expect the problem to worsen.

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Geert Out! And don't come back!

I might be inviting controversy here, but I have a wee question. What is the difference between the following two statements?

"The Koran is an inspiration for intolerance, murder and terror.... it is a facist book and should be banned like Mein Kampf."

"Show me just what Mohammed brought that was new, and there you will find things only evil and inhuman, such as his command to spread by the sword the faith he preached."

The first, as you have no doubt recognised, is from a film released by Dutch MP Geert Wilders, who this week was barred from entering Britain for spreading "hate".

The second, perhaps more suprisingly, is a quote from Pope Benedict XVI, addressing a university where he used to teach theology in 2006. Equally unsuprisingly, these words provoked anger in the Muslim world.

Both statements - at their base level - say the say thing: That Islam is a religion which is incompatible with peace, with Western beliefs and ideology and spreads evil. That is not a sentiment I share.

But I do have a question for the Home Office.

If Wilders is to be banned from Britain (and that is something I have huge issues with) surely, in the interests of fairness and balance, the Pope should be too?

Like I say, inviting controversy I know. But there's something in the Pope's "I was quoting a 14th Century text, of course I didn't mean it" defence that doesn't wash with me.

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RC church supports death penalty for homosexuality

Sensationalised title - yes.

But true nonetheless.

The Vatican is to oppose a UN Resolution calling on governments to decriminalise homosexuality.

You can read the Irish Times take on it here while the International Herald Tribune has the story here.

And there was me thinking Catholics were concerned with the right to life yet now stand opposed to ending death sentences for those who are "convicted" in countries where homosexuality remains a crime.

It's a bizarre world we live in.

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