Among the sillier items on BBC news this morning was the
story of a gay couple in Ireland who ordered a cake with the words ‘Support Gay
Marriage’ written on it in (no doubt pink) icing sugar. The bakers refused the
order, saying it went against their ‘Christian Principles’. Instead of going to
another baker, the couple made a fuss to some government department charged
with enforcing equality, and the bakers are being made to pay compensation to
the couple. I’m not sure if they’re also going to be forced to bake the cake.
Dear me. What messes people do get into.
Support Gay Marriage? Well, personally I’m not sure I
support any kind of marriage. It seems to me very irresponsible to swear to
what is supposed to be a life-long commitment to one person, especially when
one is perhaps in that highly neurotic and judgement-clouding state called being in
love.
Christian Principles? I am an admirer of Christ’s teachings
and I try to model my own moral beliefs and even behaviour on his. For instance, I rarely go to church. Christ was
notorious for consorting with ‘Publicans and Sinners’ and his best girlfriend
was a whore. And then there’s the much-misunderstood parable of the Good
Samaritan, a modern equivalent of which might be an Israeli story of the Good
Palestinian, or a German one of the Good Jew. I have noticed many times that
people who openly call themselves Christians are uptight, intolerant, quick to
judge — all the things Christ wasn’t. It seems the mere profession of
Christianity gives one a licence to behave badly.
A government department to enforce equality? Well, I suppose
so; some manifestations of prejudice should be illegal, but I am reminded of
the Kurt Vonnegut story in which beautiful people have to wear masks and
ballet-dancers leg-irons.
And why didn’t the couple just try another baker’s? Could it
be that they wanted to provoke a big
fuss, or exact revenge?
There is something that might have saved everybody in this
whole silly story: a sense of humour.
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