THE P
RTAL
Free Speech and Religious Liberty
Some worrying thoughts from Arnold Herron
May 2017 Page 18
Free speech and religious liberty are two valuable things . When they are absent , tyranny rules ; maybe not at once , but eventually a society with the absence of free speech and religious liberty degenerates into tyranny .
Elsewhere in this edition of The Portal , my colleague Geoffrey Kirk deals with the question of traditional family life in the west . He is certainly correct that what we Catholics refer to as traditional family life ; wife , husband and children , is not accepted as the norm any more .
Instead we have the rise of various “ lifestyles ” where each one is considered as good as the other . This is so whether it be a homosexual relationship , or a polygamous one . Maybe we do not hear very much about polygamous relationship in the UK , but we hear plenty about same-sex ones . Every TV and radio station has its own quota . Even game shows feel the need to promote these same-sex relationships .
On his Blog recently ( www . tunbridgewellsordinariate . com / blog /) Fr Ed Tomlinson of the Ordinariate of OLW wrote two thoughtful and well directed pieces entitled : “ Christians need not apply ” and “ We all face the Farron test at some point ”. He wrote about the hounding of the Lib Dems Leader Tim Farron in the press about whether homosexual sexual acts are sinful .
You may have read and heard about this in the mainstream media . At first , it seemed that the media could not distinguish between homosexuality and homosexual sexual acts , but once that had been sorted out , poor Mr Farron was hounded until he said that he did not think such acts were sinful .
Of course a Catholic would have replied , or ought to have replied , “ Yes , such acts are sinful , but not illegal . Just as adultery , lying , gluttony and a host of other things one could think of , are sinful , but not illegal .” Perhaps Mr Farron knew that such a reply would have resulted in him being forced out of office ?
There are many places in the modern UK where free speech is under attack , usually together with religious freedom . Take our universities for example . There are cases where a student has expressed the view on social
media that marriage should be between one man and one woman . As far as I can gather , the student in question expressed this view only on social media and not in his studies and had not discriminated against anyone . Yet he has been removed from his university and his studies .
The Portal understands that the Christian Legal Centre is taking this particular student ’ s case to the High Court .
I am told that LGBT are on the look out for similar miscreants . That they are , is interesting as their web-site states quite clearly : “ Never be afraid to let your voice be heard ..” Unless you are someone who believes the Catechism of the Catholic Church where at paragraph 1601 we read ,
“ The matrimonial covenant , by which a man and a woman establish between themselves a partnership of the whole of life , is by its nature ordered toward the good of the spouses and the procreation and education of offspring ; this covenant between baptized persons has been raised by Christ the Lord to the dignity of a sacrament .”
Well there we have it . Read Fr Ed ’ s Blog and pray for all those who are under restraint , if not persecution , for holding to just that view of the traditional family .