Iris Robinson: Hatemonger!

You remember the post a short time back about Iris Robinson, MP & MLP and her appalling comments on homosexuality and the furious exchanges which came from it? Well the chair of the Health Committee at the devolved Northern Irish Assembly has now well and truly poured a tanker of petrol on the fire:

“There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children.”

Right. So gay people and gay sex are now not just as bad as murderers, but we and the way we express our relationships are now worse than child molesters too? She didn’t even say this on a radio show or in a TV interview – she actually had the nerve to say this to the Westminster Parliament. Madder than a bag of cats, I say, but when she was questioned by the Belfast Telegraph over the quote she went further:

“I cannot think of anything more sickening than a child being abused. It is comparable to the act of homosexuality. I think they are all comparable. I feel totally repulsed by both.”

She then said that her comments were not made out of hate.

“I am trying to reach out to people. I try to reach out and love them. That is what Christ teaches us. He wants us to help all people and give them an opportunity. We all have the opportunity to come to know the Lord Jesus Christ. Anything I say is out of love. I am not hate-mongering. I cannot leave my Christian values hanging at the door when I go into politics.

“I am speaking out more now because we are getting it more and more rammed down our throats that the minority views are more important than the majority views. I am not trying to alienate anyone. Anyone can come to me with any problems. I do not turn anyone away.

“I would never water down anything with the scriptures and I don’t think I should. I find it (the controversy over her comments) amazing, if not unexpected, as these days Christians are persecuted for their views but that will not stop me. There will be a judgement day and when I am judged I want to know that I did all I could to spread the word of God.”

Not hate-mongering eh? Sure you are. Can’t leave your Christian values at the door Iris? Well homophobia isn’t a religious value, so it’s really your choice. Given that your job and your profession are committed to the representation and equality of all, the attitudes which you are now clearly pushing are in direct contravention of those goals. Persecuted for your views? Sure you are – as I would hope any homophobe who tried to push their views in public were persecuted – quite right too; your religion doesn’t justify your homophobia. We live in a society governed by the rule of law, which aims for the equality of all, not the superstition of and interpretation of scripture by people who think they’re more equal than the rest of us merely because they have religion.

That she’s repulsed by homosexuality is her business (I fail to see why we need to have her personal tastes repeated to us again and again), and surely if she’s so put off by it (which you’d expect, being heterosexual) she just shouldn’t do it? The ego of this woman is quite breathtaking. Her argument whereby her religion justifies her bigotry really needs to be taken back and recast, as Sir Ian McKellen did in his interview on the Andrew Marr Show with Gene Robinson. The problem she and her ilk have is not persecution for their views, but a refusal to countenance social change they don’t like, and rather than taking responsibility for their homophobia they:

“root around in the Bible to discover the very few passages that seem to be relevant…the argument is one we have to…take seriously.”

Except of course the Bible has been interpreted, translated, reinterpreted and retranslated, not to mention having been written for a specific culture at a specific time in world history. To literally believe that every word in it is equally applicable now as it was then is to deny the responsibility we have to use our intellects. A book which cannot be critically evaluated is no better than a weapon, but even then we should remember that even fundamentalists like Iris do critically evaluate it – Iris is hardly going around arguing for the death penalty for adultery, is she? We indeed have to take her argument seriously, because it will be seductive to some, although underneath it’s about plain old hate.

Religious Homophobia Running Rampant

It’s far from just Iris Robinson, but let’s remember what she, as Chair of the Northern Irish devolved assembly’s health committee said. After boasting that her pet ‘ex-gay’ psychiatrist could ‘fix’ gay people from being gay, saying:

“I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals – trying to turn away from what they are engaged in.”

She’s now decided she said no such thing. Apparently those words didn’t actually mean she believes that homosexuality is a mental illness which can be ‘helped’, and her words were ‘twisted’. Looks to me as though the pressure’s getting to her, not just because she’s become a liability to her First Minister husband Peter Robinson, but because her health committee was increasingly at risk with a police investigation hanging over her. Still, she has now said:

“Will the minister agree with me that there are some people who are in their teenage years sexually confused and that they could do with help in terms of practitioners assessing them with talking therapies to help them realise exactly what they are, whether they are heterosexual or homosexual?”

And in that there is a kernel of truth. Although it’s far from just people in their teenage years who sometimes need help, and teens are far more in need of acceptance and respect for who they are, than psychiatry. Having the freedom to be who you are without being told your ‘lifestyle’ (whatever that is) is an ‘abomination’ (whatever that means) is far more important. Her repositioning is welcome, although it does still appear that in her desperation to backtrack she’s still left her woeful ignorance exposed, and is more likely than not trying to disguise her genuine ‘ex-gay’ agenda as respectable when it is nothing of the sort.

Her friends in the intolerant Christian wing are continuing to obsess about ‘abomination’. The Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement (LGCM) has condemned the formation of the Foundation of Confessing Anglicans (FOCA), formed at the Global Anglican Future Conference (Gafcon) in Jerusalem last week. Reverend Richard Kirker said:

“Christians should respect and show unity, despite their differences. The world has no need for more division. We should be a family; no-one can gain from such a split.”

FOCA sure disagrees:

Great swaths of Anglican provinces, including Africa, South America and Asia, are furious with their counterparts in the northern hemisphere, accusing them of being in thrall to contemporary culture, with the ordination and consecration of gay New Hampshire bishop Gene Robinson acting as a turning point. The creation of Foca is a schism in all but name.

Outraged over the “false gospel” being promoted in the west, Foca pledges a return to the 1662 Book of Common Prayer, ignoring 21st-century additions and interpretations. It will train its own priests by sending them to hardline theological colleges such as Wycliffe Hall, Oxford, and Oak Hill, London, and will insist on more orthodox practices in its churches.

FOCA was undermined however by a challenge to the Archbishops of Nigeria and Uganda, over the persecution of gay people in their countries. Ian Baxter from the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement brought up the example of Prossy Kakooza (whose failed asylum application in the UK is the subject of a previous post) as someone who had experienced persecution for her sexual orientation. Not a single African primate spoke out against anti-gay violence. Indeed:

(Archbishop )Akinola did not condemn these acts. Neither did the other African archbishops. (Archbishop) Orombi said he had never heard of people being tortured because of their homosexuality, that when he learned about incidents – from the western media – he was at a loss to understand why he had not heard of them. He refused to accept that persecuting and torturing gay people was done openly in Uganda.

It took Archbishop Peter Jensen of Sydney to make a condemnation against all violence, but as Riazat Butt points out, in a clear parallel with the Iris Robinson incident:

It was clear they failed to grasp how homophobic rhetoric from the pulpit led to violence and intimidation.

Stephen Scott identifies the parallel with Iris Robinson:

“I would challenge Iris Robinson to a head to head debate on this, whether on radio or television or wherever. I would challenge her over what she’s said. If she’ll come face to face with me I’ll let her know what it’s like having to live in fear every day because of such views and people making such comments.”

Bishop Gene Robinson, about whom much of this oncoming schism is about, said:

“And so you and I, especially if you are in the LGBT community, you and I need to toughen up. And we need to expect suffering.”

He’s right. Homophobia is far from dead. Iris Robinson dresses it up as justified in the age of equal rights for religions, the Gafcon Bishops as ‘defending tradition’, and founding a post-colonial settlement. But make no mistake, this is the repositioning and attempted legitimisation of bigotry for a more secular and equality-driven age. And on both counts it represents a near obsession with what two men or two women do in bed, on the face of it hardly an important enough matter for dividing a religion or risking a political career. But hey that’s belief for you, which doesn’t stop this:

Some bishops and others have been presenting a different Christian gospel, expressed in disobedience to the teaching of the Bible, and continue to persecute and harass those who resist and object.

being as nonsensical as Iris Robinson’s claim to be on the receiving end of a witch-hunt.

Jesus Chris, Iris!

DUP MP and MLP Iris Robinson is now comparing gay people with murderers. Don’t believe me? Watch the video – I nearly died of laughter! With the way she’s going it’s hardly surprising that she’s now got a second police complaint levelled against her. She’s also got Peter Tatchell and Outrage! wound up enough to target the Democratic Unionist Party, (apparently not for the first time). Sinn Féin assembly members are trying to get her to resign as Chair of Stormont’s health committee, and now her husband, the new First Minister has had to defend her, saying:

“There is a legal obligation to ensure that no-one in our society is discriminated against,” he said.

“I have to say that even if there was no legal obligation I would be at the forefront defending anyone who was being discriminated against.”

And I know my colleague the member for Strangford (Mrs Robinson) would be alongside me in that.”

He has little choice but to say that, considering his office is responsible for implementing and safeguarding equality legislation in Northern Ireland. His colleague Jeffrey Donaldson however has other ideas. He said Mrs Robinson was entitled to express her views:

“This is a country where people have freedom of speech,” he said.

It’s almost as mystifying as Mrs Robinson keeping her job as Chair of the health committee, but Donaldson is an executive junior minister responsible for equality. He seems conveniently unaware that there’s never been such thing as unrestricted freedom of speech, and for him to suggest that what she’s spouting is justifiable on any grounds makes a mockery of both his office, and his boss’ protestations to be standing up for equality. It’s hardly surprising though, Donaldson is almost as mad as she is.

It’s back to the collision of rights issue again isn’t it,  perhaps again an inevitable result of the diversity and equality agenda. Gay people and religious people are all protected under the law, so how do you make equality actually work when there are competing claims over rights? As a fundamentalist theist Mrs Robinson must know that there’s hardly a ‘witchhunt against Christians speaking out’ – her entire society is fundamentally founded on a basis of devout Christianity. The point of equality legislation though is to level the playing field, which is never welcomed by those who’ve enjoyed and/or abused their disproportionate power and representation in the past. As an MP she’s doing a bad job and quite rightly deserves the increasing anger and police complaints; as a member of her husband’s government though, she really must face the sack. Likening gay people to murderers, and complaining that her argument isn’t open to criticism because it’s the ‘Word of God’ isn’t remotely compatible with standing up for equality…

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Homosexuality Is Not an ‘Abomination’

In an amusing turnaround for DUP MP Iris Robinson, wife of the new Northern Irish First Minister Peter Robinson, following a complaint by Gay and Lesbian Across Down (GLAD), she is to be investigated by police for hate speech. Presumably in her radio interview she thought that being a Christian made her immune from consequences for her insensitive, crass, borderline mad and seemingly hateful response to the news of the brutal homophobia attack on Stephen Scott in Newtonabbey (discussed in a previous post). GLAD’s coordinator Andrew Muir said:

‘They were reluctant to pursue the matter until I told them it was covered by the hate crimes legislation and I would not be leaving until they took a statement from me.’

Good for him. Is she allowed to be homophobic privately? Yes. Is she allowed to hold those opinions on ‘religious grounds’? Yes. But the day she starts to promote them is when she crosses a line with the law, and using the increasingly familiar ‘I’m religious so I’m allowed an opt out’ refrain just won’t wash. What she said in addition to the quotes from my previous post was:

Stephen Nolan: Do you think for example that homosexuality is disgusting?

Iris Robinson: Absolutely

Stephen Nolan: Do you think that homosexuality should be loathed?

Iris Robinson: Absolutely

Stephen Nolan: Do you think it is right for people to have a physical disgust towards homosexuality?

Iris Robinson: Absolutely

Stephen Nolan: Does it make you nauseous?

Iris Robinson: Yes

Stephen Nolan: Do you think that it is something that is shamefully wicked and vile?

Iris Robinson: Yes, of course it is, it’s an abomination.

It makes her claim to want to balance out condemning violence against the gay community with expressing her ‘religious beliefs’ completely bogus. Thankfully her colleague Caitriona Ruane, Sinn Fein Education Minister, phoned in to complain, maintaining:

“I think it is really important that politicians play a leadership role and that leadership role should be not to say anything that could possibly inflame the situation or cause further distress.”

She went on to say that all politicians should be guided by equality legislation, but Robinson wouldn’t have any of it, insisting:

“My Christian beliefs teach me that you love the sinner but hate the sin.

“But homosexuality is something that is an abomination.”

The Coalition on Sexual Orientation later complained:

“We are deeply concerned at these comments. We believe that the comments are at best damaging and at worst dangerous. Furthermore, they are completely unacceptable — indeed an abomination — in pursuance of an inclusive society based on values of dignity, respect and equality.”

Dr Phillip McGarry from the Royal College of Psychiatrists added his voice to the growing attacks on her comments about ‘turning’ gay people straight:

“People are born with sexual preference – that is a fact of life.

“Treatments that purport to change someone’s sexuality can be harmful and there is no evidence that they can be successful.”

Professor Michael King, also from the Royal College of Psychiatrists said:

“There is a lot of evidence going back 50 years to suggest that attempts to change people’s sexuality in either direction are not possible.

“Such treatments do not work and can actually cause quite a lot of harm. Homosexuality is a state and a sexual orientation and is not a question of behaviour.”

Robinson’s pet doctor disagrees however – it’s not surprising considering he’s also a ‘born again’ Christian. Dr Paul Miller says:

“First, no one is born gay because gay identity is a complex interaction between genetics and environment; second, no one chooses to experience who they are sexually attracted to; and thirdly, change in sexual orientation is possible.”

Dr Miller cited a study by American psychiatrists Stanton Jones and Mark Yarhouse which he said concluded that people can change sexual orientation and that the process of change was not damaging.

“That was a very robust study because in the past, and rightly so, people who worked in this field were criticised for not having robust research.”

Robust research eh? A quick look at Jones & Yarhouse shows:

…we have also been concerned for the well-being of individuals who we know who struggle with homosexual orientation and who themselves receive very confusing messages from church and society about how they are to live their lives. Often, it is “science” that is given as the reason for advice that departs from the teachings of scripture.

Except of course it is all about science – we haven’t based our philosophy as a society on the ‘teachings of scripture’ since before the Enlightenment. Whilst science doesn’t tell us how to live our lives, it does tell us why we’re made as we are, and why we behave as we do. Whether or not you like that behaviour is another matter – morals aren’t absolute, they’re philosophically relative, but there is a scientific acceptance at least in the Western world that sexual orientation is inherent. To try to regulate it by instruction is neither desirable but it’s also not possible; using a static moral framework to mediate a relationship with the world will only fail in a world which constantly moves on. Jones & Yarhouse’s study was funded by Exodus International, an religious organisation dedicated to ‘curing’ gay people, and published by InterVarsity Press, a Christian publisher, and Exodus is run by Stanton Jones himself. Jim and Brenda Johnson are right – both organisations are preoccupied with passing off repackaged theology as science, much the way in which creationism and intelligent design are being passed off as a ‘challenge’ to evolution. Jones’ & Yarhouse’s claim that science is trying to subvert Church doctrine about homosexuality is also wrong however, neatly twisting the position of science into one it doesn’t have, providing a further suggestion that their study might be somewhat biased.

We can only wait and see whether the police take the complaints against Robinson seriously. And of course it’s clear that Miller was indeed a maverick and a fraud. Hopefully he will now be recognised as such. This whole affair has been yet another example of fundamentalist Christianity and hardcore theists trying to subvert the norms which have guided society for the last few hundred years, by attempting to twist their intolerance (and in Jones’ case self hatred) into a human right, and to present pseudo science as fact – much the way in which creationism and intelligent design are being heralded as some sort of legitimate challenge to evolution. The difficulty in arguing against these people is as true as with any theist: it’s all about belief for them – an absolute, unchanging position they don’t have to prove empirically. Fortunately the law is ever more clear that at least in public and professional life they must behave according to norms of equality, which have been tested empirically and have demonstrated that society operates more happily and effectively when people previously marginalised for difference are instead included. Worryingly though, the fundamentalist naysayers still inhabit positions of influence, and remain snapping at the heels of modern society.

Religious Homophobia on the March

I’ve already written about Lillian Ladele, but she’s far from alone as a Christian intolerant of homosexuality. In response to the news of a violent homophobic attack in Newtonabbey on Stephen Scott, Northern Ireland’s DUP MP Iris Robinson (wife of the new First Minister) said:

“I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals – trying to turn away from what they are engaged in.”

She should be aware that her psychiatrist friend is breaking his own professional body’s guidelines. Homosexuality hasn’t been seen as a psychiatric disorder in the West since the ’70s, so her ‘lovely psychiatrist’ is a maverick at best, a fraud at worst. As a service provider however, he’s also quite possibly breaking the law. Is it really OK for an MP to endorse law breaking?

“I’m happy to put any homosexual in touch with this gentleman and I have met people who have turned around and become heterosexuals.”

She’s clearly quite deluded, but also pretty nasty – I heard the interview, and she had every chance to express her outrage at the violence, as well as sympathy toward Scott, but jumped to imply he’d brought it on himself. And this is the woman who is the Chair of the Northern Irish Assembly’s Health Committee! She maintains she has the right to express her religious beliefs, whilst condemning violence against the gay community, yet she clearly prioritises one over the other. It directly parallels the Ladele case, and Mike Judge of the Christian Institute puts the religious case forward (as it relates to Lillian Ladele, whose case he is bankrolling):

“I certainly think Christians need to look for some kind of compromise. But we must remember that other occupations allow conscientious objections. Teachers are excused from religious assemblies and Catholics do not have to carry out abortions.

“I don’t think that Lillian should be facing the sack just because she has that one particular point of view. And that’s what is at issue here. She is being disciplined and threatened with the sack because she’s a Christian.”

That’s not true, and if it were would indeed be illegal. As I put in a previous post, indirect religious discrimination is perfectly legal when it can be justified. And considering the requirements of the Equality Act (Sexual Orientation Regulations) Regulations 2007, it is justified under the law. Playing the martyr isn’t clever, nor is trying to fool people into believing the prevention of bigotry is tantamount to religious discrimination, when doing so will only make uncovering genuine discrimination that much harder.

Furthermore requiring equal treatment of people by professional people isn’t the same as allowing people to opt out of non-essential activities which they object to. A Member of Parliament disagreeing on religious grounds that all people are equal is not on. A legitimate psychiatrist cannot tell people that they are mentally ill for being gay. A civil registrar cannot opt out of a core function of her job on religious grounds. That’s not the same as a teacher not taking part in a religious assembly – that would be teachers refusing to teach gay students, or refusing to teach evolution because their religious sect didn’t believe in it. Iris Robinson will probably get lucky and get away with saying such insensitive garbage, because her job as an MP and position of responsibility mystifyingly allow it, but noone should be under the impression that she’s genuinely sympathetic toward Scott. Ladele will find out if she’ll get away with her religious homophobia sometime this month.

Great Policing Expectations

It must be difficult to keep faith in Britain’s police when the evidence against them everywhere is so overwhelming.

Ever wondered whether the long-running allegations against Northern Ireland’s police were true? Well guess what fucked up the Omagh trial today! Shocker eh?

Oh and if any of you wondered whether the Metropolitan Police would abuse their freedom to carry and use tasers? Look no further. That didn’t exactly take long did it?