Buttiglione

[Agemegos]

G'day

A little while ago an Italian bloke named Buttiglione was nominated to be the Commissioner for Justice in the EC. His nomination was scuppered because he had said that homosexuality is a sin, but not a crime.

It seems to me that this was entirely wrong. We cannot with any justice attempt to exclude religious believers per se from public office, especially in places where they make up the majority. And given that some theists are going to occupy some government posts, the ones we want are the ones who can distinguish the difference between the religious tenets to which they adhere in their private capacities and the laws which it is their duty to enforce in their private ones.

Regards,


Brett

[Toto]

Buttiglione (http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/3718210.stm)

It looks like there was more to it than that.

[dbporter]

There always is more to the story. Rocco Buttiglione is a past leader in the old Christian Democratic Party (read:Old line Catholic). These are the people who really do want to bring back the old Holy Roman Empire, if under a different guise, and despite all their protestations to the contrary. These are the people who pit faith against freedom (i.e., who say that freedom only extends to the point of faith. We're not free to say "no" to their God in their world view). Although Evangelical fundamentalists in America are tarred with this same rap, these are the people who really do carry out these kinds of imposed moral standards (as opposed to just talking that way), because they have the power to do so in some countries and wish they did over the whole world.