Voltaire's Fulcrum

I have to admit, I’ve got a soft spot for Boris Johnson.  Firstly, there’s the name: Boris.  Just imagine growing up with that name in Cold War Britain.  Half of MI5 would have been keeping a suspicious eye on you, while the other half tried to recruit you as one of their own.  Then there’s the almost cartoonish coupling of rapier wit with total physical ineptitude. A grand British fop.

Now I have another reason to like Bozza:

“Boris Johnson this week will face claims in the High Court that he failed to respect a Christian group's right to free speech by banning their posters from the side of London buses.

The Mayor of London refused to run ads that promoted the group's view that homosexuals can be ''reoriented'' through therapy and prayer, saying the ads by the Core Issues Trust were offensive to gays and may spark retaliation against the Christian community.”

Amen, brother.

Although, the argument about “retaliation against the Christian community” does put me in mind of something like this:

 “Freedom of speech”, of course, is the most over-used and abused justification for filling the world with hate-filled misinformation.  Of all the freedoms we claim, it is one of the most complex because speech does not exist independent of social power structures or the rights and freedoms of others.  Indeed, absolute freedom of speech is antithetical to the notion of a fair society.  Freedom of speech must always be balanced against the rights of those we are speaking about to live free from hatred, discrimination and intolerance. In a previous post, Of Sticks and Stones, I discussed the harm created by the fanciful narrative of the invading refugee hordes that has been either actively promoted or tacitly nurtured in Australian public discourse.  When used to marginalise and make vulnerable a people, words can break bones. For this reason, battles over freedom of speech are critical moments.  They define a society by defining who is “inside” and who is “outside”, what we will condone and where we draw the line, what we value and what we will compromise.  They also reveal our bravery, or lack thereof, because to define something is to take a position.  Sometimes, that position needs to be one of leadership, where we are willing to say that we will not tolerate certain instances of speech because there is evidence to show it is harmful and/or grossly incorrect.

This latter point, about the “truth” of speech, will continue to cause tension with religious groups.  Religion is a belief.  While everyone in a society should have the right and freedom to believe what they want, this does not translate into a right to present that belief as fact and use it as a basis to discriminate and incite hatred.  In the case of the Core Issues Trust, they did not say “we believe homosexuality to be curable”.  Such a statement, while misguided, might be acceptable (or, perhaps, just less offensive) as it just articulating a position.  However, what the Core Issues Trust actually said was that homosexuality is curable and should be treated.  There is no evidence to support such a position and, in fact, a mountain of evidence to suggest the opposite.  Thus, in a context where the commentary impinges upon the rights of its subject, the debate cannot be about belief, it must be about evidence with the burden of proof upon the speaker.  We need to break this bizarre and intellectually retarding notion that if somebody believes something then there is a truth in that.  We need to recognise that just because we respect someone’s right to believe, does not mean that we have to respect what they believe – particularly if that belief is harmful, malicious or just plain stupid.

Dis here world be only 4,000 year old and we ain't descended from no monkey

Meanwhile, the Core Issues Trust will proceed with a court case that is almost certainly doomed to failure, Boris will endear himself to rational humanists everywhere and the rest of us are left wondering how religious groups have the nerve to lecture anyone on sex and sexuality anyhow ... [fades to static]