Let us pray … if you want to … in silence

Back to prayers again, and Cheltenham Borough Council in Gloucestershire has decided to hold a silence instead of prayers.

This could be a way forward. The Christians can’t complain that their dogma is being shoved out, because those councillors who take part can pray to whatever deity they like, or, if they have no beliefs, simply reflect on what they’re about to do and express the internal hope that their deliberations will be to the benefit of all.

This is an alternative to my suggestion in these posts that councillors who want to pray go to an anteroom (or as many rooms as there are different belief systems, if that’s desired) and do their thing there.

If compromise there has to be, then let it be this. The Cheltenham silence was led by a preacherman, but it doesn’t have to be.

Pink Humanist #2 online now

The UK gay Humanist charity, the Pink Triangle Trust – owner of this blog – has announced the publication of the second issue of its online magazine The Pink Humanist. The first issue appeared online last December.The PTT says in a press release:

“The Pink Humanist is an LGBT magazine for Atheists, Humanists, Sceptics and Freethinkers and is the only one of its kind worldwide. It is edited by Barry Duke, a co-founder of the UK Gay & Lesbian Humanist Association (GALHA) in 1979 and a long-standing editor of The Freethinker, the voice of atheism in the UK since 1881.

“In the latest issue journalist Andy Armitage [your humble blogger] writes about Godly quacks persisting in promoting harmful and discredited ‘gay cure’ therapies. Other contributors include veteran gay activist and human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell who poses the question ‘After homophobia, what next?’, Brett Humphreys, a mathematician who writes a penetrating article about Alan Turing in the centenary year of this gay atheist code-breaker’s birth, and an Albanian gay activist who shows how this once ultra homophobic communist country has taken a leap into the 21st century.”