Homophobia,Theocracy & Modernity

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Damian O'Loan (Paris): What kind of company was Labour keeping when it relied on DUP votes to get 42 day detention through the Commons? The answer is becoming clearer by the day.

Iris Robinson MP, MLA, wife of Northern Ireland First Minister Peter, has made three horrendous statements on public morality. The latest to be reported: “There can be no viler act, apart from homosexuality and sodomy, than sexually abusing innocent children.”

On the 6th June she described homosexuality as an “abomination” and mental illness. The resulting controversy lasted the eleven days until the quote above. Last Thursday she said “the government is there to uphold the morals of the scriptures.” The DUP has yet to make a statement distancing itself from her support for theocracy and homophobia.

On Sunday, Ireland's most senior Catholic, Cardinal Brady, declared his general agreement with the view that government's role is to“uphold God's morality.” Though he spoke after the Pope's apology,and has released statements since, he has not distanced himself from Mrs Robinson's views.

Aside from the damage to Unionism that the First Minister's wife is doing, aside from the suffering her comments must evoke in child abuse victims and the LGBT community, there is the question of how close this to party policy. The failure of the DUP to distance itself from her views, given six weeks to do so, means one can reasonably assume this is party policy, or within a hair's breadth of it.

Support for theocracy, or a move in that direction, could, ironically, be perceived as a vote-winner in a province that is far removed from Great Britain in terms of modernity. Having lost Ian Paisley, who was leader of his own evangelical church, there is a fear of losing hard-right grassroots support. The Catholic Church clearly has a place for theocracy, and the Pope has been confusing materialism and Enlightenment values:

“the radical detachment of Enlightenment philosophy from its roots becomes in the last analysis, contempt for man. ”

In a world where temptation without hope of satisfaction is rife, the simplicity offered by religious self-effacement must be increasingly attractive. But, as Camus reminds us:

“Heir to a corrupt history, in which are mingled fallen revolutions,technology gone mad, dead gods, and worn-out ideologies,... this generation knows that it should, in an insane race against the clock, restore among the nations a peace that is not servitude, reconcile anew labour and culture, and remake with all men the Ark of the Covenant.”

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