Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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1. 

   You get drivel about aliens, abduction etc from all sorts of people, not just Christians – there are atheists, agnostics…

2. 

   […] last time I had had occasion to write about Rowan County clerk Kim Davis, above, was three years ago…

3. 

   Whatever is presented on the BBC, and I must admit I do not watch the TV, the fact is that…

4. 

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

5. 

   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 NSS has lodged a complaint with the Office of the Scottish Charity Regulator (OSCR), claiming a sermon delivered by Reverend Chris Demetriou, pictured above with his wife, is “misogynistic, discriminatory against women and perpetuates sexist tropes”.

Demetriou heads Rosyth Baptist Church, and the complaint came at a time when Scotland’s First Minister Humza Yousaf held a round table meeting addressing the treatment of women and promoting postitive masculiity. The aim of the meeting was to curb sexism in Scotland.

In a sermon titled “Submit and Love”, Demetriou told worshippers that a wife “should submit to her husband’s leadership” because “that’s the Lord’s pattern for us”.

He added marriage with a wife at the head “will not reach its full potential”—instead, women should be subservient women and duly submit to their husbands “out of obedience to Christ”.

Demetriou’s preachings, which take literal lessons from the Old Testament, prompted a swift reaction from the NSS., which has been campaigning against bodies with “extreme: and potentially harmful religious views becoming charities.

Image via YouTube

NSS campaigns officer Alejandro Sanchez, above, said:

Mr Demetriou’s vision of a world of female subservience is straight 
out of The Handmaid’s Tale. It is misogyny like this that underpins the 
abuse and coercive control of women, which the Scottish government says 
it is committed to ending.

He added:

In return for generous tax
breaks, charities are meant to provide a public benefit and not cause 
likely detriment or harm. If ‘the advancement of religion’ enables 
charities to promote misogyny with impunity, it should be removed from 
the register of charitable purposes.

The church re-registered last month as a 
Scottish Charitable Incorporated Organisation with OSCR for “the 
advancement of religion”.

The NSS argues that the harmful sermons encourage “coercive and controlling” behaviour—illegal under the Domestic Abuse (Scotland) Act 2018.

The NSS said it was “especially concerning” that young children attending 
would be exposed to the teachings of the church that also runs a 
Kingdom Kids group for infants and older children to learn the ways of 
the Old Testament.

Julie Demetriou, wife of the pastor, runs a mums and 
tots group at the church called Bloom.The OSCR’s guidance says 
registered charities must actively provide benefits, and may fail the 
charity test if it causes “likely detriment or harm”.

Image via Facebook/Rosyth Baptist Church.

An OSCR 
spokesperson said:

OSCR cannot intervene in the activities of religious 
charities seeking to promote their religious beliefs unless their 
activities have the clear and direct effect of harming others or 
otherwise breach the law.

A Scottish Government spokesperson 
said:

The First Minister has made clear we all have a collective duty 
to work together to promote a positive male identity so that we can 
tackle the toxic traits we see far too often in our society, and that 
women are far too often the victims of.

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