Following last week’s not very disguised criticism from the Evangelical Alliance, another Christian rolls their eyes at the Christian Legal Centre’s ongoing attempts to exempt homophobic Christians from scrutiny. Alan Wilson, Bishop of Buckingham, takes the stand.

The attempt to wring a ruling from the court that certain church attenders are in principle suitable to adopt or foster in all circumstances was preposterous nonsense, as was the idiotic attempt to get a court to define the word “homophobic” so that it could not legally be applied to conservative Catholics.

So what does the case really show? First, that the customary paranoia of rightwing newspaper op-eds sounds silly in court. Courts will injunct in cases of real urgency, but they are, quite rightly, very reluctant to compensate people for wrongs they have not yet suffered, simply to make a point on behalf of a group of zealots, however sincere they may be. It is absolutely no part of a court’s job to enter into such antics, just to create a story for the press.

This case was the fourth bite at this particular cherry by the barrister Paul Diamond and his chums in the Christian Legal Centre. There is now nothing more legally to be said on this subject than various judges, especially Lord Justice Laws, a devout Christian and churchwarden, have said so far. Rightwing Christians must establish their views on their merits, not expect courts to do the job for them.

How does orthodox Christian teaching relate to the views that were seeking legal protection? When Mrs Johns averred, for example, that “having a different sexual orientation was unnatural and wrong”, she put herself well beyond what either the Church of England or the church of Rome are prepared to say on the matter of orientation. The Johnses are entitled to their views, but cannot expect them to be unquestioned insofar as they could affect the welfare of a child.

With any luck the idiocy will stop here, although a combination of hysterical young things, big money and silly old men may be unable to resist the lure of further days out in court to grandstand their views.

Full article: http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2011/mar/05/views-on-homosexuality-children-welfare