What the hell IS this? Are lay church members – plaintiffs insane?
Full text of the decision is available from the article at the Filipino Freethinkers, or from a local copy obtained off https://docs.google.com/file/d/0ByIQb2-6J40ISGVXOTdXXzFpRGM/edit
There is more than one way to order and express our loyalties – to our families, communities (Church, town, teams) and to country – but relying on outdated, anti-Constitutional law to protect your “feelings” (read: political position on a topic about which you have a beleaguered opinion) is not an acceptable way to show fealty to the teachings of “the” Church.
To you plaintiffs who’ve caused Mr Celdran to be given jail time: You know what? The Church’s position resisting sex education, and making contraception available to women citizens as a choice, is deeply offensive to me, what do you make of that?
Are you taking offense with other persons’ opinion about a topic that your religion has something else to say? Get over it, and move with the rest of us into the public sphere. Make your statement a political statement, but leave the religious feeling of the rest of us out of the public discourse. You might win legislation, or you may not; but make the discussion a rational one, based on what all our fellow citizens need.
Errata: Article was originally posted with the title “David Celdran ‘offends religious feelings’, faces jail time”. That was not a spell check problem – for some unfathomable reasons of it’s own, my brain made that substitution, and my fingers followed. Sigh. Must avoid posting when pissed off.
My apologies to stray visitors.