3:14pm Thursday 11th March 2010
Having been educated at three very traditional Roman Catholic schools in India – one run by the notorious Christian Brothers – and being an enthusiastic supporter of the work of Changing Attitude Sussex, let me assure Father Blake that I know only too well what his church is about.
The sad fact is that as secular attitudes to homosexuality have become more rational over the past ten or 15 years, all sorts of people have been trying to find shelter in churches.
If Father Blake will, for a moment, raise his eyes from his pulpit and open his ears, he will at least have the chance to understand what Changing Attitude is asking: in the simplest terms, that homo- sexuals are human beings like all other human beings and should be treated no differently by organisations such as his church. That is all.
And is this not the message of the Sermon On The Mount and, by extension, the whole message of Jesus Christ?
Let me remind Father Blake: Now therefore abideth Faith, Hope and Charity, these three; and the greatest of these is Charity.
Rashid Karapiet, St Michael’s Place, Brighton
Let’s be clear about this. The Catholic Church does not hate gay people. Catholics are not taught to hate gay people. Father Blake does not hate gay people.
The Catholic Church gives a blanket “no” to all sex outside marriage. All.
However, since sex is the new religion, inevitably there will be tensions and conflict in going against the mores of the age. Professor Sharpe (The Argus Comment, March 5) has argued lucidly and the printed letters have been restrained. All credit. But others have different opinions, guided by their beliefs both religious and secular. Many are of the view, for instance, that the sex education bill trumps one freedom over another, which makes it a bad law.
Father Blake’s track record of loving the sinner but hating the sin is exemplary. As is his care for refugees to whom he gives shelter at his presbytery and his fight against authority to continue his 364-nightly parish soup run. He is not known for turning away gay people. Far from it. When he came upon a distressed young gay man who’d been beaten up by his boyfriend, he didn’t pass on the other side of the street or give him a lecture about the error of his ways. He escorted the victim back to the injured man’s lodgings. Of course there are gay people among his wide breadth of parishioners.
Free speech in our democracy has been fought and died for. Free speech, even if it makes for uncomfortable hearing, is the right of us all. Disagree with Father Blake by all means. But beware of falling into the trap of shouting “bigot” because you don’t happen to agree with another person’s views. Then you are on the road to a totalitarian state.
G Walsh, Orchard Gardens, Hove
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