Is this just deserts for Iris?

Remember the dotty homophobic Iris Robinson? She’s the Northern Ireland politician who seemed to think being gay could be cured by a shrink. (This link will give you an overview and some links to relevant posts.)

She was a bloody nuisance back in 2008 when our blogging of her reached its peak – total homophobic bitch. Evil.

“I have a very lovely psychiatrist who works with me in my offices and his Christian background is that he tries to help homosexuals – trying to turn away from what they are engaged in,” she was reported as saying at the time.

Well, now – and, of course, this is unfortunate – she’s reported to have attempted to kill herself after having an extramarital affair. No civilised person would wish to see someone driven to suicide, although many may feel tempted.

But she’s shown herself to be hypocritical in the extreme (although she believes she’s been forgiven by God!). She’s been ready to dish out the criticism of people who follow their natural way of loving (some believers would even say “God-given”), but has gone against her own beliefs by shagging outside the matrimonial bed.

One who has sympathy to a degree, but also finds her stance entirely hypocritical, is the gay human-rights campaigner Peter Tatchell, who has issued a statement:

I’m sorry for the pain that Iris Robinson has suffered but she’s a hypocrite. Even now, despite her own adultery, she expresses no regret for her harsh, judgemental moralising against gay people. She is sad and two-faced.

It is terrible that Iris Robinson has been driven to attempted suicide and a mental breakdown. I feel very sorry for her. But it is a great pity that this painful experience has not softened her heart towards the suffering of lesbians and gay men.

Even now, she expresses no regret for her harsh, judgemental moralising against gay people. Iris seems as unforgiving as ever.

She’s still unrepentant about her homophobia.

She doesn’t see her plight as a message from God, then. Surely, she would do so if good fortune had visited her instead of bad.

But it was bad. It’s easy to say it was deserved, but of course that suggests some causal link, and only religionists would go that far. One might, of course, conjecture that the entire mental state of such a mixed-up individual could be responsible for both her adultery and her homophobia, but your humble blogger ain’t qualified to do shrink stuff.

However, she might reflect on her attempted suicide and wonder how many have attempted to top themselves – and how many have succeeded – as a result of her rantings. We’ve seen how it’s claimed that the Pope is guilty of killing Catholics by his homophobia. And we recently heard of the former Wales and Lions rugby captain, Gareth Thomas, who was forced to hide his sexuality, to the extent that he got married, and himself contemplated suicide because he felt he was betraying his wife.

So, while we shouldn’t wish people to be driven to suicide, it’s hard to resist the temptation to say this ought to be a salutary lesson to this evil bitch. Unfortunately, it seems not to have been as far as her hatred of gay people is concerned.