Monday, July 24, 2006

Faith Crime

Members of the public in Britain are accusing the Gay Police Association of a "faith crime" for publishing an advertisement that attributes rising levels of homophobic attacks to religious beliefs, according the BBC.

The advertisement, showing a Bible next to a pool of blood under the heading "in the name of the father," appeared in a diversity supplement of the British daily The Independent. It said: "In the last 12 months, the GPA has recorded a 74 percent increase in homophobic incidents, where the sole or primary motivating factor was the religious belief of the perpetrator."

Scotland Yard said it had received a complaint from a member of the public and was centering its inquiry on the question of the whether the language in the ad "constitutes a faith crime."

Imagine

The BBC also tells us that a church school in Southern England opted to remove John Lennon's song 'Imagine' from an end-of-year program at the last minute because its lyrics were deemed anti-religious.

Students at St Leonard's Primary in Exeter were said to have spent weeks rehearsing the song before being told that lyrics such as "Imagine there's no heaven... and no religion too" were unsuitable.

The Rev. David Harris from the nearby St Leonard's Church, who is a school governor, supported the head teacher's decision, saying, "The song expresses longing for a different world and for eternal happiness but it says you can have this without religion."

So what's more ludicrous? "Faith Crime" or the Gay Police Association"? How's about a Gay Minority Police Faith Crime Association? If Monty Python were still around they'd at long last have something funny to poke fun at.

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