A street preacher from Taunton in Devon, UK, has been
found not guilty of verbally abusing a couple of gay guys after he
told them they’d burn in hell.
“The couple claimed he deliberately targeted them after a
previous altercation with them in 2010 when they walked past him holding hands
led to [his] being spoken to by police,” says the Huffington
Post.
“But the 47-year-old born-again Christian and former
paratrooper denied abusing them, arguing that he was using his freedom of
speech to air his beliefs in the centre of Taunton, Somerset, when he told the
pair: ‘Even these two dear men whom I have met before, caught in the sin of
homosexuality, can have the forgiveness of the sin, should they so repent.’”
I hate to be agreeing with the dotty Stephen Green, he of
the tinpot Christian Vice – sorry, Voice – when he says this is a victory for
freedom of speech, but it is.
Once we start telling people they can’t disagree with others
and tell them they’re wrong, it won’t be long before our lords and masters
begin to use precedent to deliver all kinds of draconian legislation concerning
what we can and can’t say.
Let’s be happy that nutters can call us sinners if they
wish. We then continue to be free to call them nutters. Along the way comes
debate – as here, and in other outlets – and eventually people begin to think.
It’s probably only because debate has been more freely entered into over the
past few decades that gay people have gained the freedoms they have
in the UK (and what it can do to benefit politicians, of course, who could take
away our newfound freedoms when it suits them, but may find it harder now than,
say, two decades ago, because there’s more public opinion to reverse).
The gay couple are thinking of going to the European Court
of Human Rights, saying (according to the Huff): “We tried to stand up for our human and gay rights and we
have been let down.”
Whem religious-based bigotry KILLS by vausing teen suicides and making parents discard their children like trashm well those bigots need to be silenced out and jailed, like those advocating racism an d anti.semitism! Kiling lies and xslandrs aren't free speech, thei are a CRIME AGALNST HUMANITY.
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