The devout Christian registrar who won a landmark legal battle over her refusal to carry out gay ‘weddings’ has spoken for the first time about the devastating campaign of bullying she suffered at the hands of her politically correct colleagues.

Lillian Ladele says she was treated as a ‘pariah’ because her traditional values were at odds with the dogmatism of equalities-obsessed Islington Council.

‘This experience has shattered me,’ she said. ‘It has been so overwhelming. For more than two years of my life I was treated as though I was full of hate, which is just not me at all.

‘All I ever wanted was to have my beliefs respected, just as I try to respect the views of others, even if I don’t agree with them.’

I have such inconsistent views when it comes to things like this. Like, I don’t think a registrar should have to marry same-sex couples if they held the job before the law changed. But, on the other hand, I feel that pharmacists have an obligation to provide the morning after pill - though NOT the abortion pill, RU486. Doctors should not have to perform abortions. I guess these are still issues that I have not completely worked out for myself, in my own mind. But I’m glad this woman won her case.

It was founded on the principle, in fact.

Stephen Boisson, Alberta Public Enemy #1 and recipient of future-crime complaints because of his Christian stance on homosexuality, brings us a surreal conversation with a Human Rights Commission employee.

He said the following recommendations were the responsibility of the people who invited me, not my responsibility.

2. Ask the church to get a signed consent form from everyone, parents and children, everyone, stating that they are not forced to attend and are there of their own free will. Later he added that this consent should be drawn up by a lawyer who is familiar with the Human Rights Laws.

3. The weekend retreat is considered one-occasion situation and that a license was probably not required.

4. The church needs to contact the education people and take a curriculum of the program and demonstrate that it is an educational program that is not unwelcome by the group there and everyone is there by consent. Also, the church needs to ask the education people if a license is required. At this point Ralph was uncertain and seemed to think a license would be helpful if problems occurred.

5. The church needs to contact the police to make sure they do not view the program as bordering on criminal activity—need to show them the curriculum so they know what is going on and do not arrive on the scene.

WTF? With the exception of the occasional 8-year-old who would probably prefer to be at home playing Wii, people are usually at church or any church program by their own free will. There aren’t people herding them in at gunpoint.

I then told Ralph that the church had already distributed a CD of mine to each of their families to prepare for the retreat that had some statements on it about homosexuals. He said that they needed a consent form from each family that this was not unwelcome material and that their kids would not be talking about any of it in the schools.

He said, “You may have a problem with the CD if it is seen as gay bashing and if anyone who has it displays it before the public, i.e., talking about it in a classroom. It needs to be used by a select group who consented to receiving the material. Religious material must not be forced on anyone who is not a part of the group who consented. If a student did this, and the person complained, you would be liable and it would not matter that all the safeguards were in place.”

Again, that free will thing. But even more worrying, what is this about keeping teachings secret and not talking about them with others? Is it now official policy of the Alberta Human Rights Commission to drive Christianity underground? Are we in Iran, where Christian teachings must be done in basements and behind closed curtains, never letting the neighbors know? Is this still Canada?

This is absolutely terrifying, if you stop to think about it. Whether you are Christian or not, you must agree that it is heinous that the main religion of Canadians is being forced into hiding by these Commissions. Is this what was originally intended when our government drew up the Charter? Nowadays, kids go to school and learn about every religion except Christianity. No one is allowed to complain. But if one of these kids attending the workshop goes to school and tells his friends about it, all hell will break loose. It has to be kept a secret. The founding religion of the modern world: Now a dirty little secret for backrooms and speakeasies.

I’m an insomniac. So I headed our for a jog this morning, a little after 5. As I went past Our Lady of Perpetual Help, I read the sign outside:

Many small good moments will outweigh one big event.

I needed that this morning.

Many of my favorite people on the intertoobs are atheists, Rachel included. But the vast majority of atheists are basically whackjobs with an axe to grind (axetogrind??).

The update I posted about Rupert’s dad was titled “There are no atheists in a foxhole.” Which anyone who reads here regularly would understand is my way of poking fun at myself, seeing as how publicly, on this blog, I’ve repeatedly identified myself as feeling like either an atheist or an agnostic, depending on my mood. I’ve regularly criticized Christians and their beliefs and have asked them to defend themselves, which they did, some nicely and some not. I’ve been very open about the fact that I simply don’t know the truth even though I’d like to, and that I find debates about religion interesting because they give you such a window into how other people think and view the world.

…

Well. That post title really, really, really pissed off some atheists. An atheist forum linked to it and its members began peppering my comment thread - which remember, was for a post that was about a loved one being in a coma and that I wrote and titled while in an understandably emotional state - with things like this:

I am sorry to hear that you find the contribution of so many members of our military, such as Master Sergeant Gid L. White (retired), to be of no value.
- Foxhole Atheist

Your opening post is a lie. There ARE atheists in foxholes… even if you don’t “believe” there are. Pat Tilman was just such an atheist. Educate yourself and quit deleting posts who try to lessen the bigotry you spread. http://www.atheistfoxholes.org/

Lying for Jesus is still lying. I hope your friend gets better. I hope he never is the bigot you are.

Just because your faith makes you feel all humble and honest… doesn’t make it true, you know.
- A Third Atheist (articulett)

Uh huh. Not a word about the state of Rupert’s dad, or any best wishes. Just nattering on about their (lack of) ideology. Why? Can’t you just say “hey, I don’t like you’re post title, but I hope that guy’s ok”? Are you so unsure of your un-faith, that you have to hijack a person’s blog post about an injured family member like that?

Hazel Blears, the Communities Secretary, defended Labour’s policy on religion after a report backed by the Church of England claimed that Muslims receive a disproportionate amount of attention.

She said it was right that more money and effort was spent on Islam than Christianity because of the threat from extremism and home-grown terrorism.

Ms Blears told BBC Radio 4’s Sunday programme: “That’s just common sense. If we’ve got an issue where we have to build resilience of young Muslim men and women to withstand an extremist message.”

Moral of the story: Blow shit up and we’ll give you more money than your peaceful neighbors. Where art thou, Winston?

Freedom of Religion no longer seems to exist in certain (Islamic) parts of England.

Two Christian preachers were stopped from handing out Bible extracts by police because they were in a Muslim area, it was claimed yesterday.

They say they were told by a Muslim police community support officer that they could not preach there and that attempting to convert Muslims to Christianity was a hate crime.

The community officer is also said to have told the two men: ‘You have been warned. If you come back here and get beat up, well, you have been warned.’

A police constable who was present during the incident in the Alum Rock area of Birmingham is also alleged to have told the preachers not to return to the district.

It comes amid growing concern over the development of Islamic ‘no-go areas’.

Christianity is a religion that proselytizes. It always has. Christ himself preached his Word to thousands. Many chose to follow him. Others perhaps took some good from his message, ignored the rest, and went home to be Jews and Gentiles - just as they were before his sermons. He never held a knife to anyone’s throat and forced their conversion to Christianity. And neither did these two men in Birmingham.

Are Muslims so afraid of their numbers slipping that they consider Baptists evangelizing a “hate crime”? They needn’t worry - they will always have the incarcerated population to draw upon. Those in prison, especially for violent crimes against the person, are naturally drawn to Islam and its bloodthirsty ways.

I must say I am uncomfortable with the idea of being told that I would not be allowed to go about my business in a certain part of town because it’s a no-go zone for Christians. Is this the religious tolerance I’ve been forced to swallow since the 70’s? Tolerance for thee but not for me?

Some common sense has prevailed in the UK, where the teenage boy arrested for “insulting” Scientology has been given a pass from the courts.

But Ghost of a Flea has some interesting details about how the kid may have gotten himself arrested in the first place:

Two years ago, the City of London police attracted criticism when it emerged more than 20 officers, ranging from constable to chief superintendent, had accepted gifts worth thousands of pounds from the Church of Scientology.

Follow the money…

Bible swiped from German church during service

C’mon! Shouldn’t they be burning cars and blasting McDonalds’ and stuff?

St. James Cathedral has given up worshiping You, and is now fully in the service of Bono and his 21st century eco-peace crusade.

For you atheists and eco-religionists in Toronto, St. James Cathedral will be happy to host you this evening to listen to the hymns of U2.

Tissue alert.

I abhor freak cults of all kinds, from the Raelians to the Jehova’s Witnesses to Scientology. And I have - on more than one occasion - described Islam as a cult of sex and death. I believe this to be true. And I believe that its adherents are brainwashed into believing that if you murder in the name of Mohammed and Allah, you will get laid a lot in Paradise. Islam is a dangerous cult along the lines of Jonestown or the Branch Davidians. They need to be listed as a cult and cleaned out by the FBI.

So imagine my dismay when I read that a member of a Christian Jesus-freak cult wanted to donate a kidney to a sick woman here in Toronto, but the surgery has been cancelled because his parents and hospital authorities fear religious brainwashing. Muslims are allowed to walk around hiding God-knows-what under their black burlap garb and they are afforded “freedom of religion”, but this guy can’t save a woman’s life.

The case has been closely tracked by an Australian film crew because the would-be donor, 22-year-old Ash Falkingham of Sydney, belongs to the controversial Jesus Christians, the “kidney cult” whose members believe that giving up an organ to save someone’s life is an exemplary act of devotion to God and humankind.

The Toronto General Hospital cancelled the scheduled transplant following accusations of religious brainwashing, appeals from Mr. Falkingham’s mother and stepfather to stop the surgery, and extensive psychiatric assessments of the man after his arrival in Canada.

Remember kids: Killing Jews is an okay religious practice, but don’t try to give a kidney to save a life. Only cults do that.

What the hell is this world coming to?

The Charter is merely a list of then-current Received Liberal Pieties and should have as much bearing on the average Canadian’s life as a six-year-old Chinese takeout menu. If written today it would include a clause making the separation of paper and glass mandatory for all householders, every other Wednesday. I do my best to ignore the Charter and so should any thoughtful person.

To Pope Benedict XVI.

Two Russian Muslims were arrested for firebombing a Jewish community center and for plotting kidnapping and armed robbery. The Canadian arm of CAIR goes for the amusing and over-used Religion of Peace routine:

Sarah Elgazzar, of the Canadian Council on American-Islamic Relations, expressed dismay the accused are Muslims and hoped that fact wouldn’t increase the animosity between the Jewish and Muslim communities in Montreal.

“Religiously speaking, Jews and Muslims should be so close,” she said. “Sure, there are differences, and there are problems in other parts of the world, but that doesn’t justify these kinds of attacks.

“Most Muslims would never even think of doing something like that; it’s horrible.”

While Kathy has the subject of Easter zombies well covered, I’m more interested in National Geographic Channel’s attempt to debunk the faith of billions of people around the world.

Welcome to Sacred Scandal Month, where almost everything in their listings ends with “But did it really happen?”

Why this incessant need to debunk Christianity? I don’t remember programs during Ramadan about how Mohammed was merely a sun-addled, spaced out pedophile looking for a way to strike it rich (and fuck small children in the process). We get this during Christmas, Easter, death of Popes etc. Enough already. Show a little backbone and go pick on the Muslims.

A Muslim cleric who whipped up a storm last year when he told his Sydney flock that women who don’t wear the veil invite rape has been endorsed as the supreme leader of Australia’s 300,000 Muslims.

Clerics from around the country meeting in Sydney decided Sheik Taj Din al-Hilali, 67, should keep the post of Mufti of Australia that he has held since 1988.

Prime Minister John Howard last year urged Muslims to dump al- Hilali, as did New South Wales Premier Morris Iemma.

Earlier this year al-Hilali raised the ire of Australians when he said Muslim migrants had a greater entitlement to the country than those who arrived at the time of colonial settlement.

“We came as free people, we bought our own tickets, we are entitled to Australia more than they are,” al-Hilali told a television station in his native Egypt.

Howard called on Muslims to show a willingness to join the mainstream by ditching their controversial leader.

Al-Hilali, an Australian citizen, has been censured before for his extremist views and each time the Muslim community has closed ranks behind him.

He made international headlines when he told the congregation at Sydney’s largest mosque that a woman in revealing clothes was herself to blame for sexual assault “because if she hadn’t left the meat uncovered the cat wouldn’t have snatched it.”

After the remarks, 34 Muslim community organizations signed a petition urging al-Hilali to defy calls for him to stand down.

The Aussie Muslims have made their choice. Now they have to live with any consequences of that choice, including mosque raids, terror arrests, deportations and so on. They were given the chance to deny terror and Muslim brutality, and they turned their backs on that choice.

Once more we must ask, where were the “moderate Mulsims” during all this? Where was the outcry? Where were the letters to parliament denouncing the cleric and asking that he be removed?

Could it be because there is no moderation in Islam? It is an all or nothing religion. You either live by it, or you die from it. Now if only the rest of us would accept that, we might have a chance of putting a stop to it.

I haven’t read LaShawn in a few weeks, so I missed this when she posted it last week. It is the story of Phyllis Chesler, a former professor of (what else?) Women’s Studies who married a Muslim and moved to Afghanistan. What she found there challenged her liberal thinking, to say the least.

Long before the rise of the Taleban, I learnt not to romanticise Third World countries or to confuse their hideous tyrants with liberators. I also learnt that sexual and religious apartheid in Muslim countries is indigenous and not the result of Western crimes — and that such “colourful tribal customs” are absolutely, not relatively, evil.

Indeed.

This is an interesting story, and I hope it signals a trend.

One of the top Islamic leaders in Iran accepted Christ and left the country after facing death threats and imprisonment, according to an Iranian pastor living in the U.S.

The imam watched satellite programming supplied by TBN Nejat TV (www.nejattv.org), according to Reza Safa, founder and president of Harvesters World Outreach. TBN Nejat TV is the first all-Christian network in the Persian language, broadcasting 24/7 into Iran and other Middle Eastern countries.

The imam called one of the phone counselors connected to TBN Nejat TV and prayed to receive Christ in early February. “The man has been watching our TV programs for the past two years,” Safa noted. “He said he has believed since he began watching the programs but his salvation was sealed through his confession.”

“This man knows all the verses of the Qur’an by heart,” he added. “After he began watching, doubt began in his heart about the Islamic faith.” The man spent nine months in prison after he questioned the violence of radical Islam. Following his release from prison, he faced numerous death threats and escaped the country.

Several other religious leaders may follow suit. “He knows four other high-ranking imams that are in the same condition and want to leave Iran,” Safa said. [emphasis mine]

Interesting, but they don’t give the imam’s name. Is that because of security fears, or because the story isn’t true? I tried running it through Snopes, but came up empty. I would really like to believe that even Islams leaders have had enough of the violence and are seeking a home in Christ.

Hell of an ultimatum! The Religion of Peace has set its collective 7th Century sights on a tiny ancient religious sect in Iraq, and is calling for them to either convert to Islam or die.

The Mandaeans are pacifists, followers of Adam, Noah and John the Baptist.

They have lived in what is now Iraq since before Islam and Christianity.

More than 80% have been forced to flee the country and now live as refugees in Syria and Jordan.

We’re busy listening to Al Gore weep hot toxic tears for the polar bear - of which we have plenty, and besides, the meat is terribly stringy - but there are less than seventy thousand of these Mandaeans left in the world. Fair enough, cultures die out. Dying is a part of living. But murder is just plain wrong.

Nine-year-old Selwan likes watching cartoons and playing football.

But he is too scared to leave his flat. The other children tease him.

He has burns all down the side of his face and on 20% of his body.

He was kidnapped by Islamic militants who forced him to jump into a bonfire - because he is Mandaean.

I meet Luay. He is too scared to be identified and does not want to use his full name.

He was dragged off the street by armed men and forcibly circumcised - a practice not allowed in the Mandaean religion.

He is 19 and is now unlikely ever to find a bride from his own faith.

Worse, he was forcibly converted. That means in the eyes of those same extremists if he now declares himself Mandaean he is apostate.

That makes him a traitor to Islam, who may be murdered. He says he will not be safe in any Muslim country.

The Dean Esmay’s of the world can bury their heads in the sand for fear of offending their friends named Ali. But this truly is a clash of civilizations. The peaceful being forced at the point of a sword to join the violent - or die.

No, this isn’t about Britney’s ill-advised brush cut. It’s about yet another Islamic religious fanatic deciding that if some chick doesn’t have her head covered, she ought to have a bullet in it.

Police said the bearded lone attacker, identified as Mohammad Sarwar, approached the minister as party activists threw rose petals at her, took out his pistol and shot her in the head.

Local police officer Nazir Ahmad said: “He killed her because she was not observing the Islamic code of dress. She was also campaigning for emancipation of women.

Dirtbag. But remember: his religion taught him this. His mother and father made sure he learned his religious lessons - like so many other Muslim families. When the word of your Holy Book is KILL, you learn to kill.

It is not a religion that can live alongside civilized society. It must be branded as the cult that it is, and its followers re-taught to embrace life. No, they don’t have to become Christians or Jews or Scientologists (while we’re on the subject of nutter cults). They can become a New Islam. Better than before, without the hatred and murder and cancerous ideology. For that is what Islam is: A cancerous ideology that chooses death over life, and murder for a shot at Paradise. Apologists must cease to apologize, and moderates must learn to speak up. And until they do, I will continue to hold the magnifying glass over this most despicable culture.