Tony Blair & UKIP
Sir, Tony Blair, in his response to the UKIP vote, says “You have got to take on people who, within countries, are arguing for a combination of anti-EU and anti-immigration policies which are not the answer.” The people of Britain who voted UKIP are indeed taking on the politicians who have not come up with the right answers to the threats to our nation that come from Europe. There may not have been a third war in Europe in military terms but we have lost our sovereignty over many issues to a foreign power just the same, and people want it back. J longstaff Essex
Sir, It looks like noone is able to name even one scholar who denies that the New Testament is strongly opposed to same-gender ‘sexual’ activity - despite the claims of the Pilling Report authors, the Diocese of Oxford, and Accepting Evangelicals. Mary Roe (17 April) again suggested the unlikely radical CK Barrett. Barrett’s commentaries on Romans (pp.38-9) and 1 Corinthians (p.140) show the opposite: he didn’t even need to discuss whether Paul is opposed, since it’s so obvious that he is. She mentions that Barrett discussed the theological and cultural angles. Of course! That’s what scholars do all the time. But how’s that relevant to the main point?
It’s not accurate for her to say I ‘lump together’ homosexuality with pederasty, STDs, promiscuity, low life expectancy, medically dangerous ‘sexual’ practices. I simply mention the oft-repeated scientific consensus that homosexuals fare notably worse on average in all these matters, which is why it’s sensible to shun such activity as we shun other harmful addictions and temptations.
My other challenge, to produce just one young person, or their writings, even aware of the said scientific and statistical evidence (rather than making generalisations that ‘lump together’ all the young people one knows without exception), hasn’t been taken up. In the light of all this, it seems clear that the claims of the three bodies named above (who all suggest an even split of opinion) are false to an alarming degree.
I plead with readers: do not be deceived. If people expect to be believed without giving chapter and verse, we must question their honesty, and expose the degree of irrationality that can be caused by enslavement to the transient prevailing culture.