Marc Horne from Scotland on Sunday looks at a growing controversy taking place at the University of Edinburgh. It seems that a local Christian group is up in arms after a campus Pagan group was given approval to hold a conference there.

“Two ancient religions have locked horns in a bizarre “freedom of speech” row that is echoing around the corridors of one of Scotland’s oldest academic institutions. The University of Edinburgh has granted permission to the Pagan Society to hold its annual conference – involving talks on witchcraft, pagan weddings and tribal dancing – on campus next month. Druids, heathens, shamans and witches are expected to attend what is a major event in the pagan calendar. But the move has enraged the Christian Union, which accuses the university of double standards after banning one of its events on the “dangers” of homosexuality.”

The school felt that the Christian Union’s anti-gay chat violated its anti-discrimination policy, and in the end offered a compromise where posters offering different views would be displayed at their class if it was to be held. That no such measure has been applied to the Pagans has infuriated local Christians.

“The Union has won strong backing from the Catholic Church in Scotland, whose spokesman, Simon Dames, felt that allowing the pagan festival to go ahead while barring the Union meeting was an example of “Christianphobia”. “This appears to be a clear case of double standards,” he said.”

But is this a double standard? I suppose you could make that argument if the school had interfered with a general conference on the religion of Christianity and then not done the same for the Pagans. But the Christian course was specifically on the moral “dangers” of homosexuality and was not a general conference on the faith itself. Last time I checked, while many Christians morally oppose homosexual behavior due to their reading of the Bible, the moral opposition to homosexuality isn’t in itself a requirement for admission into the ranks of Christendom. Of course this didn’t stop a Catholic Church spokesman from making wildly hyperbolic statements.

“The principles of a pluralistic democracy revolve around an acceptance of competing ideas and universities should be enshrining this principle. Anti-racism groups would never be asked to put up posters saying there are alternative views.”

Because anti-racism meetings and talks against gays are basically the same! Perhaps homophobia is becoming a sacrament after all.

Tags: Christianity, discrimination, free speech, homosexuality, Paganism, Scotland