Posted on April 15, 2009

‘Diversity’ Is Turning Britain Into East Germany–A Nation of Sneaks

Ed West, Telegraph (London), April 14, 2009

One of the most disturbing aspects of the culture war against Christianity is that the authorities are turning us into a nation of sneaks and Judases.

Every month there is some new story about a Baptist nurse or Evangelical preacher who gets in trouble for mentioning the G-word, and each time it’s because some weasel has informed on them.

The latest case involves David Booker, a 44-year-old who works for the English Churches Housing Group, a homeless charity run by Anglicans and Baptists. On March 26 Booker was working the evening shift, and fell into a conversation with a colleague, Fiona Vardy, about religion–as you do, it is a religious charity, after all. Asked his views on homosexuality, Mr Booker said he agreed with the Church’s teaching on homosexuality and same-sex marriages. He explained he had gay friends and that he was not homophobic.

The following day Booker was summoned by his boss and suspended for “events that happened last night” and three days later formerly suspended, and threatened with “gross misconduct” for breaking the charity’s Culture and Diversity Code of Conduct. The rap sheet says states:

“On 26 March 09, whilst on shift with Fiona Vardy, you seriously breached ECHG’s (English churches House group) Code of conduct by promoting your religious views which contained discriminatory comments regarding a person’s sexual orientation.”

Isn’t it strange that the people who always bang on about “diversity” can’t stand the most important diversity of all–diversity of opinion.

What disturbs me most is not just how intolerant they are of people’s freedom of belief and opinion (obviously there have to be limits, but Mr Booker’s were well within a reasonable spectrum) but how we are being turned into a nation of informers. People should be ashamed of themselves for reporting private conversations–if you object to a colleague’s religious or political views, tell them or keep quiet, don’t go running off to your bosses.

Historians often debate whether had we lost in 1940, Britons would have acted like the Germans under the Nazis. Well, I know we would have no trouble behaving like the East Germans under the Communists, informing on our colleagues for holding views contrary to the state’s official opinion. We’re already a nation of sneaks ruled by a passive-aggressive diversity Stasi.