Humanists have welcomed the call by Rt Rev. James Jones, Bishop of Liverpool, for a public debate on sexual ethics, but rejected his call to retain Section 28.
GALHA spokesperson Roy Saich commented: “Bishops love talking about morality, although they often know little about it. Morality is not a matter of religious faith but of moral philosophy. The Rt Rev. James Jones, the Bishop of Liverpool, knows more about morality than some bishops, but he is clearly ignorant about homosexuality.
“Humanists welcome the bishop’s call for a debate about ‘the ethics of sexuality’, as about all ethical issues, but his lecturing tone does not bode well. Indeed Section 28 inhibits the very debate he says he wants.
“To say, as the bishop does, that ‘in the act of gay sex there are serious health issue’ greatly underrates the dangers of pregnancy, particularly for young girls. And to want to restrict sex acts to those which lead to procreation, as he does, is bizarre. Celibacy is unnatural and there is nothing moral about it. When he says that genitalia were ‘designed’ he ignores all our knowledge that they evolved by natural selection.
“His Christianity clearly belongs to the past, not the modern world. His assumption that the demand for church schools is an endorsement of ‘Christian values’ overlooks the other motives of parents, and that the demand simply reflects a lack of confidence in much of state-run education.
“The opposition of the churches to changing the compulsory subject of ‘Religious Education’ into one of ‘Education about Ethical Ideas and Beliefs’, so as to include secular ethical traditions, is an educational scandal which denies knowledge of those ethical principles which, as the Bishop says, education should be about.
“Section 28 encourages bigotry and inhibits discussion. Why can’t the bishop see this?”