No more f***ing religiously themed posts, unless the Second Coming happens that is. K? Or I’ll tweak your damned nipples.

Actually the complaints made to the Guild about the society were made not by members of other religions nor by atheists nor by confirmed secularists, they were made by Christians who felt that it was wrong for the Christian Union to ban them from full participation in the society on the basis of what type of Christian they are.

There are, as my christian missionary friend Simon puts it some “fun details” about this story that aren’t being reported as much as they should. For example, while the loonies discriminate against catholics they have hypocritically written to the Catholic Bishops’ Conference for help. They have barred the university’s Anglican chaplain but also asked the House of Bishops for help. And they’ve lied both to the media and in the union’s democratic processes.

The groups representing other christian sects in the union don’t do any of those things. The Catholic society, for example, is open to evangelicals. So the only reason that ECU is being banned is because, unlike all the other societies funded by the union, it refuses to follow union rules. Of course, that shouldn’t matter too much, as the ECU is on record as saying that they “do not need the guild’s money”. So really, the only reason they’ve decided to go to the national press with their story is for publicity. Simon says that “there’s enough persecuted Christians in the world that we could be helping, without us going out and inventing some of our own” and that maybe they should spend money on them instead of on their own DIY persecution.

It is part of our world history that conflict, intolerance, bigotry et al has been a part of the development of nations - and the various religions (and varieties, thereof) have been used to control the people of those nations. [I don’t want to be contentious but I seem to remember that one of our monarchs sentenced 234 people to be burned at the stake during her short reign - and was signing death warrants on her death bed.)

Today, no-one would suggest that religion would be used to control, moderate, influence or control any particular group. That would be a ridiculous proposition.

What I do not always understand ( I understand the philosophical issues, the pathology… the need) is why those who are religious - are so intolerant of those who are not. Why can’t atheists, agnostics…non-believers, fence sitters or - apostosists, practice their ‘non-belief’ wihtout being categorised?

I accept that, of course, that I may have missed the point and… quite possibly, may even be on the wrong website/blog.

Gavin: thanks for your helpful comment, I hadn’t appreciated that the other faith groups allowed non-believers to join.

In relation to the court case, surely there is a locus issue. Is there an actual non-believer who wants to join the Christian Union, or is the guild acting on the basis of a hypothetical joiner?