The second most senior judge in England and Wales has been told that ancient Biblical scriptures, which played a major role in forming the nation’s morals, are in danger of becoming unacceptable in a country which has a reputation for free speech.
The warning was made by barrister Paul Diamond, standing counsel to the Christian Legal Centre, when he addressed the Master of the Rolls in the Court of Appeal this week.
He made the remarks in the controversial case involving a Christian charity’s London bus adverts being banned by Boris Johnson.
Protection
Mr. Diamond told the court that homosexual rights activists wanted to become the new “moral enforcers” and that Christian religious conservatives now needed protection to express their opposition to the “new orthodoxy”.
He was representing the Core Issues Trust, a charity which is challenging a ban on its London bus advertisement which read: “Not Gay! Ex-Gay, Post-Gay and Proud. Get over it!” The charity’s slogan was in response to a bus campaign by homosexual campaign group Stonewall, whose slogan, “Some people are gay. Get over it!” was carried on the buses.
Paul Diamond said it was “ironical” that in modern British society it was being suggested that mentioning Biblical scriptures was too politically incorrect.
Cover up
Core Issues accuses the Mayor of London, Boris Johnson, of unlawfully using his position as chairman of Transport for London (TfL) to ban the Christian adverts in order to secure homosexual votes in the hard-fought period of his 2012 re-election campaign.
An application was made to have the Mayor and his former media adviser brought before the court to explain why a chain of emails exposing the Mayor’s personal intervention in the bus advert controversy, was not disclosed at the first High Court hearing when the ban was upheld. The adviser, Guto Harri, left the Mayor’s office after his re-election.
Abuse
Director of Core Issues Trust, Dr. Mike Davidson, said: “This evidence only came to light after the High Court proceedings when I made a Freedom of Information (FOI) request. I firmly believe the judge might have come to a different view had she had the email evidence from the Mayor’s communications director at the time, calling attention to a potential abuse of Mr. Johnson’s power.”
See also: Telegraph