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British Gay Police Association Investigated by Scotland Yard for Anti-Christian Ad

By Hilary White 

LONDON, July 21, 2006 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Scotland Yard is investigating Britain’s Gay Police Association (GPA) after receiving a complaint that a newspaper advertisement by the Association incites homosexuals to hate Christians.
 
A war of words against traditional Christianity in Britain has moved into the police force, the BBC reports. The advertisement was taken out by the GPA during London's Europride event two weeks ago. It accused Christianity of being the source of most cases of violence against homosexuals.
 
The ad featured a photo of a bible next to a pool of blood; the caption read, “In the name of the father.” The ad’s text read, “In the last 12 months, the GPA has recorded a 74% increase in homophobic incidents, where the sole or primary motivating factor was the religious belief of the perpetrator.”
 
The trouble started when a Christian homosexual policeman who applied to join the Christian Police Association (CPA) was told that he would have to give up his homosexual activity. Equating voluntary homosexual behaviour with race and gender, GPA spokesman, Vic Codling, complained, “Black or female police officers wouldn't be asked to be ‘less black’ or ‘less female’ in order to join staff associations, so why should gay or lesbian officers?”
 
The Christian Police Association’s position paper on homosexuality says it rejects “homophobia” but refuses to endorse homosexual activity. The CPA's Executive Director Don Axcell, told BBC News, “(The GPA) published a vitriolic article in Police Review magazine about faith-based homophobia. We've been trying to work through conciliation, but we keep coming up against conflict.”
 
On his news commentary website, British conservative writer, Iain Dale posted a retouched version of the GPA ad replacing the Holy Bible with the Holy Qur’an and a new caption that read, “In the name of Allah.” Dale wrote, “Can you imagine the outcry which would ensure [sic] if the Gay Police Association released the above advert, in an attempt to highlight religious hate crime against gay people?”
 
Iain Dale points out that the GPA did not mention the specific religion of the alleged perpetrators and that the ad is merely a club with which to beat Christianity, a favourite target of gay lobbyists. He speculates on the ad’s reverse discrimination: “Couldn't you reasonably think that the advert actually incites gay people to hate Christians?”
 
Reverend George Hargreaves, who ran as a Scottish Christian Party Candidate in a recent by-election against a proposed Scottish hate speech law, was quoted by the BBC, saying the ad was an example of “Christianophobia.” His complaint spurred Scotland Yard to investigate the GPA to determine whether their ad constituted a “faith crime” under Britain’s own hate speech laws.
 
Dale quotes another commenter who wrote to say the ad constituted a hate crime, “The GPA would not dare to produce an advertisement that might be deemed ‘racist’ or offensive to a religious minority. But the Christians? Well, they’re easy meat, and who cares if any of them are offended...?”

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