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- May 25, 2013
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When an angry mob was going to execute a woman caught in the act of adultery, Jesus taught them love and forgiveness by saying, "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone".
Though I am not a Christian, I am always touched by this story and the message it conveys. Regrettably, it seems that many Christians in Hong Kong have forgotten the teachings of Christ. They stubbornly oppose a sexual orientation discrimination ordinance being brought into force in Hong Kong and will not even tolerate public consultation on such a law. Citing the Bible, they claim that orientation other than heterosexuality is sinful and accuse the lesbian, gay, bisexual and transsexual (LGBT) rights groups of discriminating against their religious beliefs.
The purpose of a consultation process is to enable all stakeholders to express their views. What these Christians are doing is shutting a channel of communication and any prospect of reconciliation. I suspect that they think a consultation process is redundant because their views about the sinfulness of those who are not heterosexual are set in stone. It disappoints me that I have to defend the secular values of Hong Kong society.
In some countries where a religion dominates the society, the only accepted truth is that enshrined in the religion's codes and, in some cases, that means no other code will be tolerated. In a secular society like Hong Kong, the protection of individual freedoms and rights is respected. We have a multicultural society where anyone can express their views. People from the LGBT community should not be put off by the views of some Christian groups and should continue to fight for their rights and ask to be treated with respect.
I recognise that everyone, including Christian organisations, has the right to say what they think about this proposed ordinance.
Unfortunately, some of them, instead of seeking to share [and exchange] opinions, have taken a stubborn stand and do not want any discussion on the issue. They are failing to understand how secular society in Hong Kong operates and this shows a lack of respect even for religious freedom as they want to impose the truth as they see it as Christians.
Portraying themselves as victims, they come across as being too paranoid to enter into a discussion with members of the LGBT community.
Patrick Cheng, Tai Po
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5:54pm
Anyway, you are right. You don't need to be Christian to either reject or agree with the anti-discrimination law. I certainly agree that discrimination is bad. But opposing the anti-discrimination law is clearly not equal to agreeing with discrimination. What we are talking about passing the anti-discrimination law will destroy the freedom of speech, education and religion of some people in town. Are these the core values HK people were fighting hard in the past few months or so when it came to the implemenation of moral and national education and etc? To some people in HK, the implementation anti-discrimination law is similar to that of article 23 and national education. I found it surprising to see politicians making their all-out efforts to reject the implemenation of article 23 to safeguard the freedom of speech they want and the implementation of moral and national education in fear of brainwashing the students while advocating the implementation of anti-discrimination law for ****exuality to suffocate the freedom of education, speech and religion of a sizable group of HK citizens.
2:26pm
Remember, religion is a private thing, and one that is limited to the place of worhsip. When you are at work, you are serving as a public servant, or being a professional, you are not supposed to let you religous views to interfere with them - people can still have negative views based on gender, family role, disabilities and ethnicity but they cannot use it as a reason to deny them their constitutional rights (civil, political, social, culture and economic) as stipluated by the covenants of UN regarding human rights.
1:26pm
By your convoluted logic, allowing the practice of Christianity and teaching the falsehoods from the Bible such as a mythical Moses -- or is it Charleton Heston? -- parting the Red Sea will also destroy freedom of speech of nonbelievers. Why shouldn't we have the same freedom to challenge the freedom of Christians preaching absurdities such as Joshua commanding the sun to stand still, which violates the law of gravity?
Sad fact is we can't never have a meaningful dialogue with some religious folks, who always reference circularly so-called truths from the Bible.
