The Government is being urged by a group of powerful MPs to axe references to Christianity from the constitutions of Britain’s far-flung outposts because they could undermine homosexual rights in these territories.
The Foreign Affairs Committee, chaired by Mike Gapes, a pro-European Labour MP for Ilford South, is pressing for the change amid claims that references to traditional Christian morality could undermine homosexual rights in the overseas territories and is objecting to Christianity being singled out above other faiths.
The committee’s purpose is to ‘modernise’ the remnants of the British Empire, giving their citizens more rights in return for introducing anti-corruption and human rights laws, the Daily Mail reports.
The committee is objecting to the redrafted constitutions of two territories: the Cayman Islands in the western Caribbean Sea and St Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha in the South Atlantic.
The Constitution of the Cayman Islands says in its preamble that it is a ‘God-fearing country based on traditional Christian values, tolerant of other religions and beliefs’.
The constitution adds that it was ‘a country in which religion finds its expression in moral living and social justice’.
St Helena, Ascension and Tristan da Cunha said in its constitution that the islands wished ‘to continue as communities of tolerance, with respect for government and the law, Christian and family values and protection of the environment’.
It is reported that earlier this year a Foreign Office legal adviser was sent by his Department 4,000 miles to St Helena to help with the revisions.
Andrew Gurr, the Governor of the territory, said the British Government had directly suggested that it drop references to Christian values from its constitution. The Mail on Sunday reports him as saying:
‘The alterations to the constitution were being debated and, when it came to the reference to Christianity, the Foreign Office man said we might want to think about taking it out because the climate in the UK was now multi-faith.
‘I interpreted this to mean that we might be offending people of other religions if we left it in. It was felt that while the UK may well be multi-faith, Christianity is the dominant religion on the island so we kept it in.’
But in its latest report on human rights, published in August, the Foreign Affairs Committee criticised the fact that references to Christianity have remained.
The recommendation of the committee has provoked anger among Church leaders and politicians. Rt Rev Michael Scott-Joynt, the Bishop of Winchester, condemned the move as ‘spurious political correctness’.
He sent a strongly worded letter to the committee and Foreign Secretary David Miliband.
The bishop said that references to Christianity in the preambles of the constitutions of territories over which Britain still has control should have no impact on the human rights of people living there.
He said the proposal was ‘unnecessary’ and appeared to be more about ‘advancing a secularising agenda’ than protecting people from discrimination.
Ann Widdecombe, Conservative MP for Maidstone and The Weald, and a Privy Counsellor, added:
‘As far as I am concerned, it is proof positive that this Government is anti-Christian. It is up to places like these to make their own decisions. There is no compelling reason for the Government to go down to this level of detail.’
In 2008, Foreign Secretary David Miliband paid special respect to Ramadan while at the same time the Foreign Office launched a consultation on whether Christmas merited a special greeting for embassy officials.
(See the Daily Mail report)
In August 2008, all members of Tower Hamlets Council in east London were sent an email asking them to abide by the restrictions observed by strict Muslims during the holy month whilst ordering a staff Christmas party to be renamed as a ‘festive meal’ and banning Guy Fawkes at bonfire night.
(See The Daily Telegraph report)
Last month, Camden Council decided to consider a ban on posters by a church advertising a weekend of events on climate change, unless they remove words such as ‘God’ and ‘Christian’ from the text in order to avoid ‘offending religious sensibilities’.
(See the CCFON report)
It was reported in July this year that choirs have been banned from singing carols in parts of the UK Parliament this Christmas. Mike Penning, Conservative MP for Hemel Hempstead, raised the point of order with Commons Speaker John Bercow, saying:
'For the last four years in the run-up to Christmas, choirs from my constituency have entertained in Portcullis House over lunch parliamentarians and staff and other members of the Commons authorities.
'Last week, out of the blue, an email arrived in my office saying this would be banned in the future as it was inconveniencing members of the House during their lunch. Is this something you were aware of, and surely we should be encouraging young people into this House - not barring them.’
At the beginning of last week, thousands of homosexual and lesbian activists marched through Washington DC after President Barak Obama pledged to end the ban on homosexuals serving openly in the US military. In his speech on 10 October 2009 Obama addressed a crowd of nearly ecstatic fans saying that homosexual unions are equivalent to marriage.
He promised those assembled for the Banquet of the ‘Human Rights Campaign’, the leading homosexual activist organization in US:
‘You will see a time in which we as a nation finally recognise relationships between two men or two women as just as real and admirable as relationships between a man and a woman.’
Tony Perkins, President of the Family Research Council wrote in his article entitled Homosexual Activists Go GaGa for Obama, described the implications of the speech:
‘One thing was clear from Obama’s speech – his goal (like that of homosexual activists) is not simply equal legal rights. It is, rather, to overturn millennia of moral teaching that has acknowledged the harms of homosexual conduct and the unique benefits of marriage between a man and a woman.
‘He dismissed those values as ‘outworn arguments and old attitudes’, while decrying the grassroots campaigns to defend marriage as ‘divisive and deceptive efforts to feed people’s lingering fears for political and ideological gain. In other words, if you hold to traditional values, the ultimate goal is simple – to silence you. President Obama told HRC, ‘[D]o not doubt the direction we are heading and the destination we will reach’. That’s a warning the American people should heed.’
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