h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Here we go again...

I wonder if any of you regulars have come across this news story:

Christian students in legal fight
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/6232869.stm

Here we have a case of an Evangelical Christian Union group 'banned' from student facilities taking legal action under the Human Rights Act. The Student's Union 'banning' them did so after it became apparent that the group asked members to sign a statement of religious belief. This clearly contravenes the equal opportunities regulations of the Student's Union. Please note that a SU cannot ban a society from meeting on college grounds, it can just refuse to fund them - another example of partial reporting.

Having been the SU president at two colleges in my youth I can tell you that this is not a new issue. In my day (the early 80's) our non-discrimination policies did not have the weight of law behind them, but we took a stance that exclusivity was bad for free speech and expression. People who wanted to run exclusivist societies would have to look elsewhere for their funding and support.

What these evangelicals are doing is clearly trying to exclude people from their activities by making them sign a covenant with their society. It should be pointed out that these christian societies do not just meet to pray and proselytise, they also generally run (in my experience) a wide range of social and educational activities, for which they ask for SU funding. Obviously if you do not wish to sign their covenant then you are excluded. So if they subsidise a trip to say Canterbury Cathedral or Iona, as a non-member you cannot take part, despite it being 'your' funds being used.

Again from my experience such societies also discriminate on who they will invite into membership. Unlike a basketball society where the only qualification is a love of the game, or a debating society where the qualification is a firmly held opinion, to join this christian group you'll have to sign up to their entire belief system. I cannot see an
evangelical society inviting you if you are say, gay, or openly catholic, hindu, moslem or pagan.

This is a prime example of:
1. Christians trying to maintain their exclusivity and prejudice against people whose beliefs or behavious do not exactly mirror their own doctrine.
2. Christians trying to show they are being persecuted (a requirement from their scripture).

If their faith and doctrine is firm and reasonable then they should be open and allow any student to join their society, regardless of their background or beliefs. Their own Saviour told them to spread the Word. not hide it away for the chosen few (though there are some passages that would indicate that Jesus thought his path was only for Jews).

Exclusionary tactics like this smack of fear and ignorance.

Dr Rowan Williams said the refusal by some student unions to recognise evangelical Christian groups looked like a "fear of open argument". So what is excluding non-Christians or those unwilling to commit to a covenant such as this then? Generally I am a fan of Rowan, but he seems to have got his argument back to front this time.

He also is reported to have said that while the views of evangelicals on the issue of homosexual sex may be "embarrassing" to liberal Christians, traditional values should not be compared to holocaust denial or racial bigotry.

That as fine a theologian as Rowan Williams should say this is frankly confounding. The traditional values espoused by these evangelicals include the exclusion and even murder of homosexuals, adulterers, people who don't do as their parents tell them and a host of other, no doubt embarrassing, biblical pronouncements.

The evangelical christian union in question said "Going to court is the last thing we want to do, but we really feel that our fundamental freedoms of belief, association and expression are being threatened here".

Let's get this straight shall we? No-one is stopping them from meeting, associating and expressing themselves. No SU has that sort of power (and heaven forbid that they ever should). It can, however, refuse to support such a society's actions. And this merits taking up the valuable time of the High Court? Don't make me laugh. It's a crude publicity stunt and that's all.

The evangelical christian union went on to say that action by the SU was a "blatant infringement of our rights".

Rights? What bl**dy rights?

And this is the nub of my rant. Bl**dy Human Rights! No-one on this planet has any real rights. Only in the affluent west do we concern ourselves with such self-serving hogwash. Human Rights legislation was created by lawyers to enrich lawyers. Overall it has not had an iota of effect on the two thirds of the human population that live in fear of hunger, disease and violence.

All it has spawned is a whining compensation culture where everyone waits for someone else's shadow to fall over their fence so they can claim money in recompense.

What we need is a Charter of Human Responsibilities. A document that lays down clearly what you are expected to do for your fellow man, and all the other inhabitants of our wretched little planet.

These whining evangelicals would do better to look at their sacred scriptures and re-examine the teachings of their saviour. He was reported to have been quite hot on people's responsibility to one another. Perhaps then they will become christians and open their hearts and their society to anyone who would come to it.

Enough said...

Blessings,
Matholwch .

It is about human rights. Particularly the right to freedom of expression.

The Evangelical Christian groups have the right to run their society the way they want to, and to include or exclude whomever they will.

And the Students Union has the right to decide who gets their money and who doesn't.

That's all.

TRiG.

Hi Trig

Having a boring Sunday? You should have watched Wales vs. Canada in the Rugby World Cup - excellent match!

Anyhoo I believe you have summareised the position nicely - ta!

Blessings,
Matholwch .

Sport? At a stretch, I might be bullied into watching hurling, but nowt else.

I'll be off hillwalking with some friends shortly, and for now am mucking about online.

I'd noticed your posting a couple of days ago, and made a note of it as one to come back to.

TRiG.

Well I've just been reading David Yallop's book "In God's Name" - an investigation into the hushed-up murder ending the 33-day reign of Pope John Paul I and the whole God's banking scandal with it's endless string of murders and so-called suicides, not to mention billions of Vatican dollars being chanelled into dubious projects, and I wonder where the religion is in all this. Shakespeare would have turned the whole thing into a tragedy. It runs almost Hamlet like in it's course. There's even a nun who is moved into a convent 600 kms away to keep her quiet. And an Irish priest, Father Magee, who admits to being part of the cover-up
So where are the Christian values per se? Wherever they are they don't appear to be in the State of the Vatican which sheltered its home-grown criminals from Italian justice and you'll not need reminding not all that long ago helped many top Nazis on their way to liberation and South America. And so on and so on back into the dim and distant past ....
Now the current Pope was just here in Austria - and suitably greeted with all the band playing, arms shouldering, attention standing, boot stamping, military pomp and presidential circumstance as befits a man of Christian peace. He made his way to various churchy locations of baroque excess to pray and speak to the huddled masses in the wind and rain and his primary message was - in no uncertain terms - that there are not enough children being born (in Europe). It seems that married couples are failing in their duty to overpopulate the planet. My God, how many kids are dying of starvation every day? And that brings us back to the unsolved murder of Pope John Paul I - the Pope whose brother had 10 children - and who was could see reasons that birth control was not a sin and that families needn't suffer with the problems of unlimited babies coming off the conveyor belt, and who also wanted to root out corruption, and tackle the greed and irrelevance in the Vatican and try and clean-up the world's most secret State.
So at the end of the current Pope's visit to Austria I'm left wondering what all the fuss was about. What the €8,000,000 / 3-day
experience was in reality - I only have images of gold and silver baroque, a papal cap flying away in the wind, and people sitting in pacamacs in the non-stop rain, a rain so persistent that his Black Hawk Helicopter couldn't fly for lack of vizibility. And maybe that's sympomatic of what is wrong with Christianity today.

Hi Lucky

It was ever thus...

Be wary of conspiracy theories the majority of which, when the truth finally emerges, end up as a series of cock-ups and panicky attempts to cover them up.

Be especially wary of such theories that result in best-selling books. It's worth asking what didn't the author tell you? Did he start with a theory and hammer the evidence in to fit the mould? Then carefully sweep away the evidence that contradicts the theory?

Blessings,
Matholwch .

Trust everyone, it's the only way you will find out who you can trust.

Hi Malth,
Obviously Yallop wants to sell his book so a good murder mystery hook is a selling point.
What is clear is the following:
1) Michelle Sindona (American Club Man of the Year) was sentenced to 25 years in USA and 15 years for financial crimes in Italy. And also Life for murder of Giorgio Ambrosoli who gave evidence at his trial. Sindona died in custody claiming he had been poisoned.
2) Archbishop Marcinkus was accused of involvement in the Banco Ambrosiano crash and the disappearance of $1.3 billion. The Vatican agreed to pay $250 million to the bank's creditors "without admitting liability".
3) Luigi Mennini, the managing director of the Vatican Bank, was sentenced in Italy to 7 years for fraud.
4) The Vatican State offered safe refuge to Marcinkus, Pellegrino De Strobel (senior exec. banker), and Mennini who were wanted on warrants.
5) Magistrate Vittorio Occorsio investigating these matters was fatally shot.
6) Magistrate Emilio Alessandrini was murdered after opening an investigation into Banco Ambrosiano.
7) Roberto Rosone deputy chairman of Banco Ambrosiano was short and seriously wounded.
8) Roberto Calvi (famously known as God's Banker) 'suicided' under a bridge in London.
9) Graziella Corrocher (Calvi's secretary) 'suicided' from the 4th floor window of the bank's HQ
10) Trial of Licio Gelli (the puppet master) began in January 2007
11) The Vatican sent out so-called 'letters of comfort' to reassure the concerned authorities in Guatemala and Nicaragua where the Vatican Bank had extended its operations.
12) Pope John Paul's last will and testament was 'disppeared'.
13) No autopsy was carried out on the Pope. He was embalmed within 15 hours.

Obviously the question arises regardless of whether or not the Pope was murdered - What kind of way is this to run church responsible for nearly 20% of the planet's population.

And let's not forget that it's the religion of the widow's mite, the turning over of the synagogue tables, the giving to the needy and so on that we're talking about here.

"If a man asks you for your jacket give him your overcoat also" to paraphrase the founder.

I should add that quite a few of the above listed events happened following the original publication of the book and they were predicted by the author. He seems to be on solid ground. He has good sources. That's for sure.

As you say - "it was ever thus" and I suppose it always will be.