Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

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   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

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   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

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   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

INTERFERING with progressive legislative processes in countries across the world is something the Roman Catholic Church and evangelical organisations are particularly adept at.

But in Buddhist Sri Lanka the Catholic church, led by Archbishop of Colombo—His Eminence Malcolm Cardinal Ranjith, above—stands accused of failing to adequately oppose a bill that that would do away with an old colonial law that criminalises homosexuality.

Earlier this month the country’s Supreme Court ruled that the Bill is “not inconsistent with the Constitution”, paving the way for a Parliamentary debate and vote on the subject.

Among those infuriated by what they see as the RCC’s inadequate response to the Bill is Eshan Dias, PhD, a member of Cultura Vitae, “a movement of concerned professionals who seek to uphold the dignity of marriage, family and the value of human life from conception until natural death.” 

Dias is now urging people, via the far-right religious news outlet, LifeSiteNews, to demand action by the cardinal to oppose MP Premanath Dolawatta’s Private Member’s Bill that would scrap Section 365A of Sri Lanka’s Penal Code.

Gazetted in March, the Bill effectively states that sexual orientation of a person shall no longer be a punishable offence, and any sexual conduct between two consenting adults of the same sex, in public or private, shall no longer be an offence.

Dias, writing for Linked in this week, made a number of outrageous claims, even equating homosexuality with thievery:

While it is acceptable that every citizen should be treated equally by the law, it would be ridiculous to make theft legal on account of thieves’ feelings of vulnerability.

Claiming that “international pressure” had resulted in the Supreme Court decision, he wrote:

The abortion mongers, the geriatric feminists and anti-life and anti-family NGOs and activists backed by their international patrons seek to change the law in order to change culture, and with culture to change our children, and thereby change the nation’s future.

Apart from being homophobic and transphobic Dias is also a deeply misogynistic:

When all colours of the rainbow are legal and equal, it will be necessary to extend the already fashionable and irrational gender equality practices to more than women.

Presently companies are bending over backwards with diversity-hiring and -promoting in order to have parities in positions of power, and currently women are breaking ceilings and making news, and quotas are being legislated for them.

To ensure equality and to break the bias against all ‘genders’ there will consequently arise requirements to eliminate under-representation of homosexuals and other ‘genders’ on the boards and in the leadership of all institutions, since that would be ‘gender equality.

Naturally, a significant proportion of the population will be inclined to identify into these expanded privileged categories to obtain status, positions, and scholarships that they could not have achieved were they grounded on competency, and the beta males can transition into women to fill the women’s quotas in power positions.

Foreign interference

Dias’ cockamamie arguments against the scrapping of Section 365A—another version appears in the Catholic World Report—rests on the notion that governments are being pressurised by “powerful” and “imperialist” LGBT+ supporting nations to eliminate homophobic laws in countries that have them.

But, not surprisingly, he neglects to mention that those laws came into being mainly through foreign religious interference.

What Dias called “courageous” Uganda, for example, has been targeted for years by mainly American evangelicals who have stopped at nothing to spread hatred of LGBT+ communities.

The Conservative UK government was also complicit

Just last month The Guardian reported that the UK had been helping to fund the work of “a virulently homophobic religious organisation” in Uganda, whose leaders have backed a proposed law that would make identifying as gay a criminal offence,

A report by the Institute for Journalism and Social Change (IJSC) found a “staggering” number of connections between anti-LGBTQ+ organisations in Uganda and international aid donors, including the UK.

According to International Aid Transparency Initiative submissions, the Inter-Religious Council of Uganda (IRCU), an inter-faith body,has been a direct recipient of UK aid money.

In February, members of the IRCU, including the Church of Uganda and several evangelical churches, signed a statement expressing “great concern” over “the growing spread of homosexuality” in Uganda, and the effect of “the LGBTQ agenda” on the well-being of children.

The Foreign Office (FCDO) confirmed it provided funding totalling £134,900 to the IRCU from 2021 until earlier this year. But a spokesperson said that, following comments made by the IRCU in relation to the anti-homosexuality bill, the UK decided in February to stop the funding.

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