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A Lent Lecture at St. Botolph's Church
Tatchell was delivering a Lent lecture at St Botolph's Church, Aldagte. "For over 1,800 years, the Christian churches followed the murderous incitements of Leviticus 20:13, sponsoring the mass murder of queers. "We were stoned to death in antiquity, burned alive during the medieval era and, in Britain, hung from gallows until the mid-nineteenth century. "This slaughter of homosexuals took place with the official blessing of Popes, Cardinals and Archbishops of Canterbury".
"The church has recently marked the Millennium by celebrating 2,000 years of Christianity. But many lesbians and gay men were not celebrating. We were mourning two millennia of Christian prejudice, which has inflicted terrible pain on homosexual people. "Over the last 2,000 years, church-inspired homophobia has led to hundreds of millions of homosexuals worldwide being rejected and reviled by their families, driven to depression and suicide, discriminated against by anti-gay laws, and condemned to death for sodomy. "Christian leaders have never expressed any remorse for the church's oppression of queers. The Pope's recent apology for Vatican intolerance made no mention of past Catholic support for murderous anti-homosexual witch-hunts. "The Archbishop of Canterbury's millennium sermon in January was an opportunity to atone for the genocide inflicted on us, but Dr Carey chose to ignore our suffering.
"The Christian churches, more than any other institution in British society, have waged an almost ceaseless war against homosexual people. "It is a war that still continues today. Last year, the Archbishop of Canterbury mobilized the House of Lords to vote down an equal age of consent. "Now, Cardinal Winning is scaremongering and queer-baiting in a desperate bid to save Section 28. "Current religious homophobia has its roots in Biblical teaching. Leviticus 20:13 demands that homosexual be put to death. "The Bible is to gays what Mein Kampf is to Jews. It is the theory and practice of Homo Holocaust. "For over 1,800 years, the Christian churches followed the murderous incitements of Leviticus 20:13, sponsoring the mass murder of queers. "We were stoned to death in antiquity, burned alive during the medieval era and, in Britain, hung from gallows until the mid-nineteenth century. "This slaughter of homosexuals took place with the official blessing of Popes, Cardinals and Archbishops of Canterbury. "While the church no longer advocates the death penalty for gay lovers, it still preaches a gospel of sexual apartheid, arguing that homosexuality should not be accorded the same moral or legal status as heterosexuality. "Is not this claim for the moral superiority of heterosexuality analagous to the way the leaders of the Dutch Reformed Church defended white superiority during the apartheid era in South Africa? "Does it not echo their justification of racial discrimination against black people?
"While they may disclaim it as their intention, these churchmen incite the prejudice that fuels the violence against our community. They have queer blood on their hands. "Cardinal Winning, Dr Carey and most of the church hierarchy continue to support discrimination against gay people with regard to the age of consent, marriage, employment, Section 28 and the fostering and adoption of children. "They say that lesbians and gay men are not entitled to human rights. "If church leaders advocated similar discrimination against black or Jewish people, there would be a nationwide outcry. They would be shunned and discredited. "Instead, these apostles of intolerance and unreason are invited to advise the government on the content of the school curriculum. "In this atmosphere of on-going religious bigotry, it is difficult to show forgiveness - all the more so when the church leaders who have authorised our victimization show no signs of sorrow and regret. "Nevertheless, the lesbian and gay community must not stoop to the church's inhumanity. We should loathe the sin of homophobia, but love the sinner and strive to deliver them from prejudice and discrimination ", said Tatchell. |
Peter Tatchell 
The Archbishop of Canterbury Dr George Carey
Cardinal Winning 
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