JourneyOnline
The question: Does faith trump equality?
Love gets a bad press. It sounds too 1960s to be considered any political use. It’s a term of abuse against liberals. It’s privatised by fundamentalists. But it could be the key to both making sense of, and providing a way forward in the apparent stand-off in which some amongst the religious claim that they need to have their doctrines protected in law.
Some churches would like to claim that religion’s very banishment from public life is at stake. But this is to misunderstand what is going on. The fact that the question "does faith trump equality" is posed at all is a symptom of the underlying problem. It is the law of love that should trump them both – or at least be their fulfilment.
Love, of course, is supposed to be central to Christian doctrine. And by love I don’t mean vague sentimentality, but a genuine willingness to treat others with equal regard, dignity, concern and respect – something that both religionist and secularist should be able to agree on.
When I was growing up, we used to sing a song in our church based on words that Jesus is recorded as using in John’s gospel: "They will know we are Christians by our love". Nowadays, as far as their public profile goes, "they" seem more likely to know Christians by their ability to negotiate opt-outs, and win rights to discriminate. But it also highlights how churches, in demanding that a small, selective collection of their ideas take priority, are actually denying what is supposed to be at the heart of their faith.
Read the whole article here.
