Another week, another high profile clash involving Christians who want the freedom to express their faith. The Times reports here on the current gay adoption row, and notes that Tony Blair is in a bit of a dilemma, as a Christian with strong Catholic leanings.
The wisest bit of the current debate is part of the letter from the two Archbishops of the CofE, which warns that a climate is being created where it's no longer possible for someone with a strong faith to hold public office. Ruth Kelly has been sidelined because of her Roman Catholicism, and has found herself caught up in the current row, which has, all of a sudden, become Tony Blairs decision rather than hers. The issue is whether adoption agencies should be compelled to consider gay couples as equivalent to heterosexual couples for the adoption of children. It is one of a series of issues which the government has become entangled in as it tries to push its agenda of complete equivalence between all forms of sexual expression. With other public rows over crosses, veils etc., there is a high profile tussle over whether we are becoming a thoroughgoing secular state, where it becomes illegal to express faith and beliefs in ways which previously had been accepted. Mind you, slavery and apartheid have both had religious justifications in the past, so there's no point pretending the church always gets it right.
But I'm already nervous that if I use this blog to say where I stand, people will get upset and lots of emotive words will start getting thrown around...
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