(FIRST OF ALL, MY APOLOGIES are needed after a long absence. This has been due to the fact that for some reason which escapes me someone found offence in my essays and “reported me” to the good people who provide the platform upon which I write. Apparently the latter have looked into the matter and found that I can continue reporting on the facts as I see them, with no wish to offend anyone. And so:)
SHOWBUSINESS, IN THE GOOD CITY of San Francisco, or perhaps in the comfy homes and knitting circles of New Hampshire apart, it is rare to see our newspapers taking such interest in the “rights” of homosexuals as in their outpourings of late. To some extent this has to do with recent statements made by Pope Benedict XVI, or “Nazi Ratsy” as he is known in the popular press in the United Kingdom.
THE GOOD LEADER OF CATHOLICS is soon to bless the shores of Britain in a visit to the five million Roman Catholics in England and Wales to find out “how they are doing”, although sneakier opinions suggest the real aim is to try to convince the rather more numerous “deviant” churches to join in the big Vatican party, something which is in the process of happening as a good swathe of the Anglican middle classes become increasingly horrified at seeing their lesbian bishops holding hands in the streets or their gay vicars cuddling each other before and after service, if I am allowed the pun.
AS A PREPARATION FOR HIS VISIT, Benedict has issued a Latin warning to the British government about its aberrant proposal for a law obliging the Catholic Church to follow the Civil Law of the land: i.e. not to discriminate due to sex, religion or sexual orientation when “hiring” or “advertising a position” for a priest. Benedict XVI states that this legislation runs “counter to natural law, and imposes unjust limitations on the freedom of religious communities to act in accordance with their beliefs”, which is well and good, but has anyone ever seen an “advert” for the position of a priest in the classifieds?
IN THE MEANTIME, ANOTHER POPULAR WORLD LEADER, Barack Obama, is again come to grips with the knotty issue of the openness of homosexuals in the United States Armed Forces. Not content with following Bill Clinton’s happy “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy, Obama is considering allowing open homosexuality in order not to “force young men and women to lie” about their sexuality while they are bombing, torpedoing or shooting people around the world. Opposition on this from inside the forces, headed politically by Senator John McCain, is similar to the Pope’s view for the Catholic Church: the Military, like the Church, is not the same as civilian life, and so the rules must be different.
FURTHER NEWS ON HOMOSEXUAL RIGHTS today involve the case of Malaysian opposition leader Datuk Seri Anwar Ibrahim, once again on trial for sodomy, or “sex against the order of nature”, as it is cutely put in Malaysian law, for which he may face twenty years in jail, according to the Malaysian National Express. The sticking point in the trial proceedings involves the method used by the prosecution to prove that penetration of another male had actually taken place. No doubt they will find a way. But these three events do serve a serious purpose in order to explain the enormous gaps existing between our Western civilian, religious and military societies, and society in general in the Muslim world. Many of us in the West must be bewildered about homosexuals being hanged in Egypt, stoned and whipped in Iran and occasionally beheaded in more seriously Muslim countries; they must find it equally odd to see us having our religious leaders and generals openly behaving as homosexuals. The colourfields on the map above will allow one to find out where one is best advised to avoid getting one's peers into trouble.
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