Well I thought I would provoke a debate and for the most part I think I provoked a reaction!
posting my piece to the VSSN list has generated a thread of nearly a dozen replies! you can read them in the archives at http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/cgi-bin/webadmin?A1=ind0701&L=vol-sector-studies-network
This is my response
If you read carefully what I was trying to say the "problem" is not gay adoptions or equal rights for gay couples, but whether government should impose a monolithic model of provision of any service on a sector which by nature includes a wide diversity of groups, with strongly held values.
Tony Hermann latched on to this in a most helpful way and the example of the diverse translation services and the pragmatic solution is an excellent one. In the real world of course this pattern of service operating through consumer choice will lead to de facto discrimination
In the same way I would support state funding of various telephone help line services for particular niche markets, e.g. one for women at risk of domestic violence, child line and a gay and lesbian help line. And of course similar patterns do occur in the case of state aided faith based schools, or the tax relief given to almost every religious congregation and place of worship even though membership is only open (either de jure or de facto) to those who share particular beliefs and rituals.
So why do secular equal rights activists want to impose uniformity on religious groups who have a conscience on particular issues that are not shared by the whole of society..?
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Thanks for your thoughts Greg. It has clarified my own unease with this situation. In my experience the wise approach is to keep people on board as much as possible -- even if you don't agree with their beliefs. The government doesn't seem able to do this around this issue and so will give succour to those religious extremists who believe the government is corrupt and evil and that religious people should have nothing to do with it. They therefore make life more difficult for those of us to sit in the middle trying in some way to hold faith and government together. It is a shame that secularists seem to have little idea of the impact of their actions. I think all we can do is point out the problems in a temperate way and keeps saying that it is worth working together.
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