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In his letter of the 23 October, Mr Bonett Balzan chose to give your readers a sermon to on his unique brand of “Christianity”, where he referred to the case currently pending before the Swedish Supreme Court in which a pastor is being accused of incitement to hatred on the ground of sexual orientation.
Mr Bonnett Balzan chose to be very selective in the information he shared with your readers. He omitted to point out, for example, that Pastor Green is not being prosecuted merely for preaching the official teachings of his Church, but, on the contrary, for going to the extreme of describing gay men and lesbians as “a deep cancerous tumour on all of society”. Hardly a statement that can be justified by reference to one’s rights to religious freedom or freedom of speech.
May I remind Mr Bonnett Balzan, as well as your readers, that the right to freedom of expression, like any other right, has to be exercised with responsibility. In our criminal laws, one finds restrictions to the right to freedom of expression in relation to laws on slander and defamation, and more recently against incitement to racial hatred. Surely Mr Bonnett Balzan won’t rush to the rescue of individuals accused of these crimes, too?
And this brings us to the real problem; the fact that whereas we often cry foul when we hear inflammatory language being levelled at Jews and other members of ethnic minorities, women, or persons with disabilities, people are often quick to justify hate speech against members of sexual minorities. Gay men and lesbians are as human and as deserving of the protection of the law as anybody else in the face of abuses of the right to freedom of speech which put our communities in peril by encouraging others to discriminate against us, harass us or even commit violent acts against us. The fact that the perpetrator in this case was a religious minister does not exonerate him from the responsibility to respect the law; on the contrary, as a person held in high esteem, he should show more moderation. I hope Mr Bonnett Balzan is not advocating the conferment of privileges for the clergy in this respect. That would fly in the face of democracy and of everyone’s equality before the law.
For Mr Bonnett Balzan to describe Pastor Green’s prosecution as a “new form of religious oppression” is simply preposterous. One cursory look at history books will teach him and others like him that it was us who used to be burnt at the stake by individuals who share Mr Bonnett Balzan’s beliefs, mainly at the hands of the Inquisition. Still today, in a large part of the world, we still are imprisoned, tortured or even executed solely because of our diversity and even in the Western world we face real challenges in our daily lives to assert our right to love and be loved back.
But I’m afraid Mr Bonnett Balzan has a direct interest in ensuring that sexual minorities in this country are never accorded the respect they deserve. His language is evidence of his hate and prejudice and of why he so quickly rushed to the defence of Pastor Green. His claims that we are a “scourge” and that we are a danger to children, “even health-wise”, are outrageous and criminal and they haven’t been heard since the Dark Ages. They expose an already vulnerable social group to even more prejudice and social disdain and are backed by no scientific evidence. But perhaps in his blind hate Mr Bonnett Balzan thinks he doesn’t need any of that. He’s received all the knowledge he needs from religious inspiration. I’m afraid however that anyone professing the Christian faith would much rather renounce his religion that be associated with him or with his language. Perhaps Mr Bonnett Balzan should have another good look at the Gospel -he will learn that Jesus never described anyone as a “scourge” or as a “cancer” and that on the contrary His was a message of love and acceptance.
Christian Attard
Malta Gay Rights Movement
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