Current justice of the High Court, Michael Kirby, will be giving a speech tonight at Melbourne University discussing religious condemnation of homosexuality and its impact on human rights. An edited version of his speech was reproduced in The Age today. Given the conversation I had with the Pakistani guy on the weekend, I think the message in the speech is rather timely. As Kirby cogently reminds his readers:
"Most of the world's great religions are founded, ultimately, on simple principles of loving God and one another. It is from those principles that religious tolerance derives."
Kirby also makes this observation:
"The Holy Koran does not prescribe compulsory adherence to Islamic beliefs. On the contrary, it states that "there is no compulsion in religion". God alone has the right to punish those who do not adhere to Islam or who turn their backs on its beliefs."
As for the Bible:
"The Nobel laureate and religious leader Desmond Tutu...declared his acceptance of the authority of Scripture as the word of God. But he has not forgotten that the Bible had been used to justify racism, slavery and the humiliation of women. He declared: "I could not stand by whilst people were being penalised again for something about which they could do nothing — their sexual orientation.""
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