THE P
RTAL
Freedom of speech v . Hate speech in the UK
August 2018 Page 4
Auntie
Joanna
A warning call from Joanna Bogle
The ghastly attempts to ban Christians from teaching about marriage and family are , of course , ghastly . There is an element of weird insanity about them – the kind of insanity that has something of the demonic about it . writes
We have been here before , in recent human history . In the old USSR and in its satellites in Eastern Europe , all sorts of nasty forms of restriction were imposed on people who wanted to teach and write about the truth . People created underground newsletters to discuss religious and philosophical topics . Russia ’ s poet Irena Ratushinskaya was sent to a labour camp for writing poetry that challenged the socialist / atheistic worldview and was hence deemed dangerous to the Soviet system . In Poland in the 1980s a “ flying university ” organised lectures by , among others , Britain ’ s Roger Scruton , challenging the whole Marxist ideology and also exploring all sorts of ideas in literature , philosophy , art and culture .
Britain ’ s government – yes , Britain , the nation for which freedom of debate on ideas and information is a cherished tradition – has suggested that teaching that men and women are different , and that marriage can only ever be the union of one man and one woman , is a form of “ hate speech ”.
It is not clear what is really meant by this notion . Many of us – including the writer of this feature – have been victims of hate . The law rightly protects us from libel and slander , and from acts of vandalism . Where people announce hatred of the Church and its institutions , the Church asks for no special privileges : we have freedom under the law and it works well .
There is no hatred in teaching the truth about human biology : that men and women are different , that new life comes from the union of man and woman . If people hate those who teach this , they are people who need help to overcome irrational , dangerous , and possibly seriously nasty fears and prejudices .
We will continue to teach , in Catholic schools and in our parish work with young people , and in our
conferences and missions , the truth about the human person , about men and women , about marriage , and about all that is connected with all of this .
What , then , does the Catholic Church teach about our being male and female . For the record , and for the avoidance of any confusion , here it is :
Catechism of the Catholic Church “ MALE AND FEMALE HE CREATED THEM . . .”
2331 “ God is love and in himself he lives a mystery of personal loving communion . Creating the human race in his own image … God inscribed in the humanity of man and woman the vocation , and thus the capacity and responsibility , of love and communion .”
“ God created man in his own image . . . male and female he created them ”; He blessed them and said , “ Be fruitful and multiply ”; “ When God created man , he made him in the likeness of God . Male and female he created them , and he blessed them and named them Man when they were created .”
2332 Sexuality affects all aspects of the human person in the unity of his body and soul . It especially concerns affectivity , the capacity to love and to procreate , and in a more general way the aptitude for forming bonds of communion with others .
2333 Everyone , man and woman , should acknowledge and accept his sexual identity . Physical , moral , and spiritual difference and complementarity are
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