Scotland cardinal calls gay law “threat to religious freedom”

Keith Michael Patrick Cardinal O‘Brien

Function: Archbishop of Saint Andrews and Edinburgh, Scotland, Great Britain

Title: Cardinal Priest of Sts. Joachim and Anne at the Tuscolano

Birthdate: May 17, 1938	Country: Scotland

Elevated: Aug 21, 2003	More information: www.catholic-hierarchy.org, www.archdiocese-edinburgh.com

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Scotland cardinal calls gay law “threat to religious freedom”
Jul 25, 2006
The Catholic Church in Scotland is attacking a new law that would ban discrimination by businesses and public bodies based on sexual orientation, calling it “totalitarian,” according to the Sunday Times.

(Bay Windows, 7/20/2006) The law will ban discrimination based on sexual orientation in schools, preventing Catholic schools from teaching that homosexuality is a sin and forcing them to give equal time to lessons on heterosexuality and homosexuality. The law will also bar Catholic adoption agencies from turning down same-sex couples as prospective parents based on their sexual orientation.

Cardinal Keith O’Brien told the Times that the provisions in the Equality Act, currently being drafted by the Department for Communities and Local Government at Westminster, are a “threat to religious freedom,” and he said the legislation would “force people of faith to approve and cooperate with values that they can never in conscience accept.”

Tim Hopkins of the gay advocacy group Equality Network told the Times that the law does nothing to harm religious freedom because it does not force them to marry same-sex couples or preach in favor of homosexuality or provide Mass to gay and lesbian people. “However, when an organization, faith or otherwise is providing a public service, such as education or adoption, it should be bound by the same rules that bind the public and private sector,” Hopkins told the Times.

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