The case centred on a full-page advert taken out in the News Letter ahead of a Gay Pride parade in Belfast in August 2008. It was headlined 'The word of God against sodomy' and invited people to meet for a peaceful gospel witness against the act. After receiving seven complaints that the notice was homophobic, the ASA ruled it could not appear again in the same form. It also told the church to take more care in future to avoid causing serious offence.
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Sandown Free Presbyterian Church's legal team argued its rights to religious belief and freedom of expression under European law had been breached. They also claimed the church was not offered the chance to offer an explanation before the ban was imposed. The church argued the ASA misinterpreted a quotation from the Book of Leviticus which branded homosexual acts an abomination.
According to the church the description applied to sodomy itself rather than any individuals. In his ruling on Tuesday, Mr Justice Treacy stressed the context of the advertisement was important. The judge noted that the advertisement contained no exhortation to violence and that it also made clear how violent antagonism towards homosexuals was unacceptable and unjustifiable.
4 comments:
Churches get all upset about homosexuality since the Bible says it's a sin...well the bible says (many times)that gluttony is a sin too (overeating)...yet churches conveniently ignore the fact that half their members are fat and are obviously committing the sin of gluttony everyday.
...but then the preachers wouldn't want to upset the "customers"
How do you spell "hypocrites"?
I think it's w-o-r-s-h-i-p-e-r-s.
Strange how the self-righteous also overlook that Leviticus used the same word (currently translated as "abomination") for eating shellfish. Where's the outrage for all that disgusting shrimp, crab and lobster eating that's going on? It's clearly as big a sin as sodomy.
Confidental to Sandown Free Presbyterian Church, sodomy is not a gay thing, most of the world's sodomy is done by religious straight people. It's an umbrella term for sex acts that don't make babies. Does your congregation know you are against foreplay?
But if you insist using the word to describe only the *gasp* anal part, are you saying those gays who don't do that are not abominations? What about lesbians? They certainly don't lie down with mankind, as with womankind.
Let the fools protest and show their idiocy to the world, it's good for secular society.
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