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Opinions contained in The Iona Blog are not necessarily those of The Iona Institute. The Iona Blog is open to anyone who broadly shares the views of The Iona Institute. If you wish to post a comment on a relevant topic please email 200 – 400 words to info@ionainstitute.ie and it will be considered for inclusion in the blog.
A liberal grandee questions the sex revolution
~First it was Raquel Welch denouncing the legacy of the Pill. Now Dame Joan Bakewell, a long standing liberal campaigner, has admitted that Mary Whitehouse, a noted campaigner against sexual and violent television programmes, was actually right to worry about the sexual revolution of the 1960s. Read more...
Our politicians and freedom of conscience
~The Civil Partnership Bill was back at Committee stage yesterday (Thursday) and the issue of a conscience clause was once again considered and dismissed for the usual spurious reasons. Justice Minister Dermot Ahern told the Committee that “members of the public service (with) issues from their religious beliefs” have to “put those aside on the basis that they are employees of the State.” Read more...
Parental input key to teen sexual behaviour: Irish Times columnist
~Breda O'Brien's Irish Times column on sex education last Saturday contained a lot of food for thought and is well worth a read. Perhaps the most interesting point she makes is that, contrary to popular opinion, what parents say about sex has a major influence on teenagers and their sexual behaviour. Read more...
Civil Partnership Bill will treat Christians like bigots
~In my Irish Independent column of last Friday I write about the upcoming Civil Partnership Bill. If you are a regular visitor to this website you already know that the Bill makes no provision for freedom of conscience. Read more...
Weigel: Defending religious freedom an urgent need
~Noted US theologian and religious commentator George Weigel has written a thoughtful piece on the challenges posed to religious freedom in America. Read more...
When secularists like Church involvement in politics
~We're used to hearing politicians, especially those on the secular left, decry the influence of religion in politics. Such influence, they wail, breaches the wall between Church and State. So it was interesting to read that the Speaker of the US House of Representatives, Nancy Pelosi called on the Catholic Church to speak out from the pulpit to promote immigration reform at the start of this month. Read more...
The Pill is condemned by...Raquel Welch!
~Raquel Welch was one of the great sex symbols of the 1960s. Now, in a true man-bites-dog manner she has condemned the Pill for ruining marriage and bringing about ‘social anarchy’ in the form of the sex revolution. Read more...
Homophobia not relevant to same-sex adoption debate: GCN editor
~On Wednesday, the TV3 current affairs programme MidWeek dealt with the issue of same-sex adoption. Brenda Power, opposing it, said that State officials shouldn’t have to decide for a child whether it can do without a mother or a father. But perhaps the most interesting snippet from the discussion was a concession from Bryan Finnegan, the editor of Gay Community News. Read more...
Ciaran Cuffe, conscience and Tim Nicholson judgement
~Last Thursday, a leading UK judge, Lord Justice Laws, ruled that religious belief was “irrational”, had “no basis in fact” and that laws protecting freedom of conscience and religion were bound to lead to theocracy. His comments came as he ruled against Gary McParlane, a Christian sex therapist who refused to work with homosexuals because of his religious convictions. Read more...
A British judge declares war on religious faith
~A British judge has utterly and completely dismissed as “irrational” and “capricious” any and all conscience claims a Christian can make in the course of their daily lives. The judge, Lord Justice Walls, said yesterday that “In the eyes of everyone save the believer, religious faith is necessarily subjective, being incommunicable by any kind of proof or evidence.” Read more...
The Pill at 50 – a decidedly mixed legacy
~The Pill is fifty years old. It was approved for use in the United States on May 9, 1960. It is arguably the most revolutionary invention ever in terms of its effect on human behaviour. Without it, the sex revolution would have been impossible. Read more...
An Irish Westminster Declaration needed
~At the beginning of this month, just before Gordon Brown called the UK General Election, some of Britain’s leading Christians came together to sign a document called The Westminster Declaration. The declaration is a defence of marriage, the right to life and freedom of conscience. It is another sign that Christians are waking up to the growing threats to what they believe. The two main signatories are the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, and Scotland’s Cardinal Keith O’Brien. Read more...
The Dr Phil Boyle case: how it is an attack on conscience and marriage
~Has a doctor a right to run his practice along fully Catholic lines? Is belief in traditional marriage now deemed problematic in the eyes of the law? Is it problematic in the eyes of society? To judge from the case of Dr Phil Boyle, the answer to the first question is ‘no’, and to questions two and three it is ‘yes’. Dr Boyle runs a fertility treatment service along Catholic lines at Galway clinic, which is a Catholic hospital. He was summoned before the Fitness to Practice Committee of the Medical Council last week. His offence? He would not accept a cohabiting couple for treatment because of his belief in traditional marriage. Read more...
When children are wrongfully removed
~A children’s rights referendum is on the cards. Before we vote on it we should carefully consider the example of Britain. Those who favour a change to the Constitution claim that the current law in this country makes it too hard to remove children from their families. The danger is that the change might make it too easy to do so. In Britain there is no written constitution and no constitutional definition of the family. Social workers have more power of intervention there than they have here. Does this mean British children are better protected than Irish children? The answer is almost certainly, no. Read more...
Classroom indiscipline: the family factor
~The topic of disruptive classroom behaviour by pupils raised its head again this year at the annual Teachers' Union of Ireland (TUI) conference. According to TUI general secretary Peter McMenamin, the recession and educational cutbacks have made the problem worse. Read more...
Why didn’t Prime Time talk to the parents?
~Last night (April 9) Prime Time ran an item on how religion is being taught in a new type of State-run, inter-denominational primary school. The report was heavily weighted against the practice of teaching the various faith groups separately during class time. Read more...
INTO seeks to undermine religious freedom
~The Deputy General Secretary of the INTO, Noel Ward, has called for Section 37 of the Employment Equality Act to be consigned to history, because it ‘legislates for discrimination’. Read more...
Sensible change to Civil Partnership Bill
~Unfortunately the Government still stubbornly refuses to make any provision for freedom of conscience in the Civil Partnership Bill. However, it has sensibly relented a little on the provisions related to cohabiting heterosexual couples. Read more...
Is it all in the mind?
~Every now and then a neuroscientist pops us to tell us religion is all in the mind because he has tracked down the part of the brain that ‘controls’ and accounts for religion. Fire up this part of the brain and next thing you know, you’re getting ‘mystical’ experiences. Turn it off and you’re as irreligious as your pet dog, or Richard Dawkins. Read more...
Dermot Ahern's confusing stance on Civil Partnerships
~The Government's Civil Partnership Bill began the process of going through committee earlier this week. Sadly, no amendments on religious freedom were tabled, much less debated. Instead, we had amendments from both Fine Gael Justice spokesperson Charlie Flanagan and Labour Justice spokesperson Brendan Howlin, asking that Civil Partnership be made even more like marriage. Read more...
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