Special treatment for catholics?

As reported in The Independent on Sunday on 21 January 2007, the news that the catholic church is pressing the British government to allow an exeption to the recently passed anti-discrimination law regarding sexuality has reached the mainstream media (BBC, The Times).

At the moment, only Ruth Kelly and the prime minister, Tony Blair, are supportive of the catholics’ attempt to change the law to their own demands. Kelly is a known catholic, and Blair is a catholic supporter (his wife, Cherie Booth, is a catholic) and has had meetings with both the currrent pope and his predecessor. Blair, it is thought, is expected to convert to catholicism after he leaves government office.

As I noted previously, Ruth Kelly, the Secretary of State for Communities, is hardly the best person to represent those who are discriminated against, especially considering that she a) is a strict catholic (and probably a member of Opus Dei); b) has abstained from every single major vote on homosexual rights.

Today I learned that, not only is the government considering relenting to the demands of the catholics to allow them (and only them) to legally express their bigotry but, that this government is attempting to subvert the welfare support system by actively promoting religious-welfare programmes (source: DWP).

So, what does this mean?

At the moment, the catholics are attempting to get an exemption to anti-discrimination legislation, which would allow them to refuse to accept adoption requests from homosexual couples.

The Department of Work and Pensions is aiming to promote religious supply of more mainstream welfare services (of which adoption is already one) such as support for the homeless, etc.

Mr Murphy announced he was hosting a national seminar in the coming weeks that will bring together faith organisations of all persuasions to discuss how they could contribute further to the welfare state and what more the Government can do to facilitate this.DWP press release

If this exemption goes through, and the government funds religious groups to offer state-sponsored welfare programmes, what is to stop the catholic church (or any other church) from further demanding extra exemptions for these programmes? The precedent would already have been set, and it would be more difficult (legally) to turn back the clock.

What this would amount to would be the Vatican dictating public policy, determining how the welfare infrastructure of Britain would be run. It would also allow for any special interest group to assert that they too are also eligible for special treatment.

I fear having our government policy, and hence our legal, economic and welfare systems being dictated to from the Vatican or by the whims of any other group. If I wanted to live in a theocracy, I’d move to one.

Possibly related posts:

1. It’s *still* a fucking cracker, or how some catholics are just fucking arseholes ...
2. The Telegraph: Muslim sex offenders may opt out of treatment ...
3. All Roman Catholics Go To Heaven ...
4. One for UK catholics, perhaps? ...
5. Catholics get 20 months leeway on adoption ...

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