Religious leaders on wrong side of history

THE EDITOR: In order to dress up their blatant bigotry against a specific group of people, six religious leaders have proffered the fig leaf of preserving marriage and the “traditional family.”

None of these religious spokesmen – evangelical pastors Desmond Austin and Winston Mansingh, Catholic Archbishop Jason Gordon, Hindu Sat Maharaj, Muslims Yacoob Ali and Mohammed Haque – have explained how giving homosexuals the same human rights as heterosexuals pose any threat to marriage or family.

Perhaps, for reasons best known to themselves, they believe that tolerance of homosexuals would lead to more people becoming homosexuals, in contradiction to their (scientifically correct) statement that sexual orientation is not fluid.

The religious leaders were also correct in their statement about the social benefits of marriage – every society, and indeed every ethnic group, which has progressed has had a high marriage rate.

But if these leaders were really so committed to preserving and promoting marriage and family, why aren’t they offering marriage and childcare services for free? Why aren’t they calling for a repeal or modification of TT’s divorce laws?

Why aren’t they ejecting or excommunicating members of their congregations who are “living in sin” or who have more than one wife?

Their failure to come together for any such campaigns only reveals that their real agenda is one of hatred. This is nothing new about religions, whose leaders have invariably been on the wrong side of history.

TT Humanist Association

www.humanist.org.tt