phobias, morality, the law

I was impressed by a letter published in Edinburgh University's Student newspaper this week which addressed the validity of making moral judgments on homosexual activity - pointing out that if you believe that homosexuality is wrong, it doesn't automatically mean you're homophobic.

The author [of a previous article] also implies that moral disapproval of homosexual activity should be regarded as homophobia. The author's own perfectly sensible definition of a phobia as an irrational fear or hatred should demonstrate that this elision is also false. The judgment that a certain kind of activity is morally wrong is simply not the same thing as fearing, hating, or mistreating those who indulge in it. If someone who disapproves of homosexual activity is cruel to persons who are inclined to or indulge in such behaviour, this is a grave wrong; and it is in no way a necessary concomitant of the moral judgment about the activity in question.

It's a relief to see views like that being articulated - especially since it takes care to make the point that homophobia is actually wrong. A person's homosexual lifestyle is no reason for them to be ridiculed or insulted, and a professed belief in the moral wrong-ness of it is definitely no excuse for being offensive.

But what's maybe even more of a relief is to see views like this being published. The Christian Institute's latest email is about Joe and Helen Roberts, who want a legal declaration that it was unlawful for the police to interrogate them in their own home for two hours and threaten them with imprisonment after they had asked the council to display Christian leaflets in addition to literature promoting a gay-rights agenda. (Jonathan Freedland used the incident in an article back in January as one of several examples of free speech coming under direct attack in recent months, so it's not just religiously conservative people who care about this.) I think the Christian Institute have set up a legal defence fund to help with the Roberts case, which is intended to stop similar confrontations arising in the future between members of the public who haven't actually committed a crime and hyper-zealous police officers who seem to wish they had.