Happy National Coming Out Day

Apparently today is National Coming-Out Day in the USA. So happy coming-out day to everyone in the world, whatever your sexual orientation!

To celebrate, Kittredge Cherry has made a coming-out day video.

A heretic and proud of it

Are you a heretic? created with QuizFarm.com

You scored as Pelagianism You are a Pelagian. You reject ideas about man's fallen human nature and believe that as a result we are able to fully obey God. You are the first Briton to contribute significantly to Christian thought, but you're still excommunicated in 417. Pelagianism 83% Socinianism 75% Monarchianism 58% Nestorianism 58% Arianism 50% Chalcedon compliant 42% Monophysitism 42% Modalism 33% Apollanarian 33% Adoptionist 33% Docetism 25% Albigensianism 17% Gnosticism 17% Donatism 0%

As a person who doesn't believe in the Trinity, and believes that all human beings are the children of the Divine (which is both one and many) and that we all carry the divine spark within (though I don't reject matter as the Gnostics did), it was very difficult to answer most of the questions.

a victory for good sense

I am delighted to see that this employment tribunal made the correct decision in upholding the rights of LGBT people against someone distributing hate literature (mistranslated and taken out of context from the Bible) against them:

Sexual orientation and religion or belief cases
A significant Employment Tribunal case on the overlap between religion or belief and sexual orientation discrimination law is Mr T Apelogun-Gabriels v London Borough of Lambeth (2301976/05 (5016/62) Feb 2006): The complainant, a Christian, was dismissed for distributing ‘Biblical extracts’ to members of work-based prayer group and ‘interested parties’. He used a search mechanism on a CD of the Bible to locate, download and printout a range of quotes which his employers, the London Borough of Lambeth, considered homophobic, and distributed the literature across the workplace. The Tribunal said that the “material … on any view was totally hostile to those of a homosexual sexual orientation” and the fact that the employer provided a prayer room showed that it did not seek to discriminate on grounds of religion or belief.

The tribunal concluded that a non-Christian who distributed similar literature would have been treated in a similar fashion and that it was the complainant’s conduct in distributing homophobic literature which was the reason for his dismissal, not his religious beliefs.

This is an important case on the dividing line between religion or belief and sexual orientation discrimination. It makes clear that tribunals will be reluctant to give latitude to homophobic actions apparently based on the religious beliefs of the perpetrators. It is an example of the delicate balancing act between religion or belief and sexual orientation discrimination. Equal opportunities policies should take account of both. However, clashes between the two will cause difficulties. Many trade union representatives and employers will be inclined to treat any homophobic behaviour with the utmost seriousness and will examine with scepticism claims that it is protected by the religion or belief Regulations. The outcome of Apelogun-Gabriels should encourage them that that is the right approach, but situations may arise in which the finding the right balance between the two is more difficult.

The full report is available at http://www.tuc.org.uk/extras/SORBreport.pdf

~ from UCU Equality and Employment Rights newsletter