Love and faithfulness

You, Lord , showed favor to your land; you restored the fortunes of Jacob.  You forgave the iniquity of your people and covered all their sins. 

I will listen to what God the Lord says; he promises peace to his people, his faithful servants— but let them not turn to folly.  Surely his salvation is near those who fear him, that his glory may dwell in our land.  Love and faithfulness meet together; righteousness and peace kiss each other.  Faithfulness springs forth from the earth, and righteousness looks down from heaven.  The Lord will indeed give what is good, and our land will yield its harvest.  Righteousness goes before him and prepares the way for his steps.

Psalms 85:1‭-‬2‭, ‬8‭-‬13 NIV

https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.85.1-13.NIV

The second reading for the Second Sunday of Advent is from Psalm 85 - what you have just read. 

I would like to focus on verse 10 Love and faithfulness meet together: righteousness and peace kiss each other. 

These two words Love and Faithfulness are associated with marriage.  For any marriage to be successful, these two ingredients have to be present in both parties to the marriage.  And, I might go further to suggest that without the one, the other is lost too. So, if there is no genuine love for the spouse, then the ability to stay faithful is lacking, and likewise, if one spouse is being unfaithful, then it is questionable as to whether that love that drew the couple together is as it was at the beginning.  

Of course, humans being human means that we often lack constancy and even the best of people lose patience with others for one reason or another. We also lose patience for ourselves. There are two other scriptures that bring these ideas together. 

Let love and faithfulness never leave you; 

bind them around your neck, 

write them on the tablet of your heart.

Proverbs 3:3. 

It is because of the Lord's lovingkindnesses that we are not consumed, because His [tender] compassions never fail.  They are new every morning; Great and beyond measure is Your faithfulness.

Lamentations 3:22‭-‬23 AMP

https://bible.com/bible/1588/lam.3.22-23.AMP

We need to look to our Lord for the model of love and faithfulness. He is the faithful One. Other people may give up on us, but God never gives up on us. We sometimes give up on ourselves. We are tempted to give up on some dream that once motivated us, because of disappointment or failure, or because others have told us it is unrealistic. We want to throw it all down and walk away.

Maybe you had in mind to something amazing for someone you love, and your pour your heart and soul into getting it just right, but then something is said that gives you the feeling that all that effort was not appreciated. It's very easy to become despondent. But, it is when the battle gets the hardest and we want to throw in the towel and give in. 

It might be that you are trying to overcome an addiction of some sort, and you try and you try, but the addictive urge drags you down and you say to yourself "just this once", but of course the once soon becomes multiple times, and suddenly you realise, and you feel such a failure. It is then that you need to remember that God has not given up on you, and with God's help you can get to that point when you can look back and say "one year ago, I had my last ..." "Two years ago","Ten years ago..." And most people who reach that freedom, which was not acquired without a struggle, can testify to how their life has got better without that thing, whatever it was. 

Know this: 

God loves you. God's love is unconditional and God's love is continual. There are no brakes on God's love

God's love is always fresh, New every morning.

God is faithful. 

These facts about God's love can help us to develop that kind of love and faithfulness.

We can be faithful in our relationships, in our work (doing the best we can, taking a price in our work), and in our promises (actually doing what we say we'll do). 

Restore us, Lord God almighty, make your face to shine upon us, that we may be saved.

This blog is to share what I had wanted to share by video on Wednesday but couldn't due to some technical snags.  So here is a slightly edited version of what I wanted to share with you. 

This is for the first Wednesday of Advent.

Starting with a word of prayer:

Give us ears to hear, O God and eyes to watch, that we may know your presence in our midst during this holy season of joy as we anticipate the coming of Jesus Christ.

The reading for today is Psalm 80. 

Hear us, Shepherd of Israel, you who lead Joseph like a flock. You who sit enthroned between the cherubim, shine forth before Ephraim, Benjamin and Manasseh. Awaken your might; come and save us.  

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.  

How long, Lord God Almighty, will your anger smolder against the prayers of your people?  You have fed them with the bread of tears; you have made them drink tears hby the bowlful.  You have made us an object of derision to our neighbors, and our enemies mock us.  

Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.  

You transplanted a vine from Egypt; you drove out the nations and planted it.  You cleared the ground for it, and it took root and filled the land.  The mountains were covered with its shade, the mighty cedars with its branches.  Its branches reached as far as the Sea, its shoots as far as the River.  Why have you broken down its walls so that all who pass by pick its grapes?  Boars from the forest ravage it, and insects from the fields feed on it.  Return to us, God Almighty! Look down from heaven and see! Watch over this vine,  the root your right hand has planted, the son you have raised up for yourself.  Your vine is cut down, it is burned with fire; at your rebuke your people perish.  Let your hand rest on the man at your right hand, the son of man you have raised up for yourself.  Then we will not turn away from you; revive us, and we will call on your name. 

Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved. (Psalms 80:1‭-‬19 NIV https://bible.com/bible/111/psa.80.1-19.NIV)

Wow - what an interesting Psalm. I wonder what stood out to you. For me it was the refrain similar but not identical that appears three times in the psalm. 

Restore us, O God; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

Restore us, God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

Restore us, Lord God Almighty; make your face shine on us, that we may be saved.

There's so much we could say about this psalm but I will touch on that refrain, in its four parts. 

Restore us

The psalmist is asking God to turn the people back to Himself. The word used is related to the word for repentance. Repentance is an action that we as humans need to do, but here the psalmist is asking God to turn us around, to bring us back to where we should be - with God. 

O God; God almighty; Lord God almighty

With each repeat of the refrain, the writer adds a bit to his description of God. First time, it's just "O God", then he adds "almighty" - which means the all-powerful God. Finally he says Lord God almighty - not only is God all-powerful but God is Lord, God is in control, a truth that gives us reason to be hopeful. And Hope is the theme for Week One of Advent. 

Make your face to shine on us

This phrase reminded me of the Aaronic blessing that God instructed Aaron to and his sons to say when they pronounce a blessing on someone. It goes like this:

The LORD bless you and keep you

The LORD make His face to shine upon you and be gracious to you.

The LORD turn His face towards you and give you peace.

(Numbers 6:24-26)

He blessing is self-explanatory but I would point out that these are the words God prescribed to be used for a blessing - the implication being that that is exactly what God wants to do - God wants to make His face shine upon you and me. 

That we may be saved.

I think many Christians have a very specific and narrow understanding of the word saved. People tend to think about being "saved to eternal life" , that is that it is all about where we will go after we die. Their whole theology is based on getting people "saved". It was a worldview that I subscribed to myself for many years. While we definitely can look forward to a time when all the bad will be done away with all the hurt and sadness, all poverty and all materialism will not blight our existences, our future hope does not mean we ignore where we are in our lives at this time, imperfect as it is. We can cry out to Lord God almighty to save us from 

• COVID 19 and all its effects

• Climate Change

• Knife and gun violence

• Terrorism

• Abuse of children and vulnerable adults

• People trafficking and modern slavery

• Poverty

• Racism, religious intolerance, homophobia and transphobia.

• Many other things. 

God would want to save us from these things and God would use us to save us from those many things.

If we read the psalm, we see many situations which the Psalmist is praying to be saved from. What situation are you asking God to save you from? 

I believe we don't have to wait until we go to heaven to have God shine His face upon us but as we prayed at the start we can experience God's presence with us and the God's face shines on us a lot more often than we're aware of or acknowledge. 

To conclude I want to share with you the closing of the Compline service.

In peace we lay down and sleep

For You alone Lord, make us dwell in safety

Abide with us Lord Jesus

For the night is at hand and the day is now past.

As the night watch looks for the morning

So do we look for You, O Christ.

Restore us again, O God of hosts

Show us the light of your countenance

And we shall be saved

Bless and Keep us, this night and always

Amen

 

Digging Wells and Open Spaces

 Hello again,  

It has been a while since I last shared anything at length with you about the Bible. 

I came across the story that I am going to share with you just yesterday. I must be honest, for someone who feels he has a good Bible knowledge, it is quite disconcerting when you come across a story that you do not recall ever hearing before, but there it is. A new narrative, to me, though of course the Narrative is not new, it's in the book of Genesis. 

So what is this story? It is a story about Isaac. Backtrack a bit, his father, Abraham had dug some wells but after Abraham died, Philistines who were jealous of Abraham's and Isaac's wealth, went and filled up the wells with Soil, basically destroying the Wells and so Isaac had his servants go and redig the wells, and Isaac gave the wells the same names that his father, Abraham had given them, but Isaac needed more wells and so his servants went and dug another well but the Gerarites were unhappy about this and so they argued with Isaac's servants about the well, and so Isaac called that We'll "Contention". So the servants went and dug another well, but the Gerarites came and disputed about that well too, and So Isaac gave that we'll the name "Enmity" and so the servants went and dug another well a bit further away, but this time nobody came to argue with them about the well, and so Isaac gave this well the name "Open place". 

What can we learn from Isaac and his servants in this story? I have read a few good sermons on this but I am going to try and share with you my take on the story. Be interested to know if you have heard or read this story before and whether you have or not, I would love to hear what you think we can learn from it. I do not care whether you think this is historically accurate or just a story, I am more interested in hearing people's understanding of what we can learn. Share it in the comments. 

My lesson learnt is this

In life we will at some point encounter quarrelsome people who do not do anything to help, but will always claim to have a better idea or may say that you should not be doing what you are doing for any number of reasons. They will stand in the way of progress.  We have a choice - we can stand around and argue with those people and get absolutely nowhere, or we can refuse to engage and just keep on doing what we're doing. I am not 100 % sure what to make of the fact that Isaac named the first two wells, except maybe that those wells belonged to him no matter what others said, and so he named them. He called the first well "Esek" which means Contention. The existence of opposition did not deter Isaac, and it should not deter us either. He went ahead with digging the next well, but it appears that more opponents came and tried to stop them digging there either. Isaac called the second well "Sitnah" meaning "Enmity" - I read that the word Sitnah has the same root as the Word Satan. I do not know if you believe Satan is real or not or how you perceive Satan as an entity, but however you believe Satan represents a spirit of opposition and accusation.. When you are working hard on something and all you hear are critical unhelpful whining and sniping, it can be soul destroying. While I would advise against a one size fits all type of solution - certainly different situations require different responses, but what I understand from this story is that despite the  opposition, the servants of Isaac pressed on, and went and dug a third well. Maybe one way of dealing with it is to just move on and start working away from the complainers. I did not read anywhere in the story that the servants fought with the Gerarites. The Gerarites could have gone and dug their own wells but they chose to dispute with Isaac. 

Many years ago there was a "Christian magazine" called the "Berean Call" . The thing about that magazine was that it was full of challenging churches for doing what they deemed to be as doctrinal error. It was totally relentless, and it was annoying. They were self appointed "doctrine checkers, and they took their name from a Church spoken about in the Book of Acts that were commended for checking things out for themselves. But the magazine had taken this to mean that we are supposed to be the doctrine police, they were very keen to point out all the supposed dodgy doctrine. I must admit in the beginning I agreed with them because I subscribed to the same doctrines - essentially Protestant doctrine, but something, I cannot remember what it was - maybe the prompting of the Holy Spirit, I realised that what they were doing was not okay.   I stopped picking up a copy of it at the back of the church.  Thankfully too, the pastor of my church actually stopped the magazine being delivered to the church. 

We are told in the book of Colossians not to get involved in meaningless quarrels. I realise that people don't believe what they choose to quarrel about is meaningless, but I think that we should   ask ourselves if the thing we are arguing about is in fact really important. We need some objectivity. Even if the other person started it, we can either continue the argument or refuse to get drawn in. 

As a gay Christian, I have experienced what many like myself have, people judging me as "Not a real Christian" because they cannot reconcile the idea that someone is born with their sexuality which is what it is and cannot be altered by choice or an act of the will. So they dismiss this well established reality with their fiction of everyone being naturally heterosexual and that anything other than heterosexuality is regarded to them as a disorder, and so they decide that gay people must either renounce and repent of their sexuality and live as heterosexuals, or if they cannot manage that, then at least, live celibate lives. I realise that many who cannot reconcile being LGBT with their religious beliefs (because it is not only an issue with some Christians) argue with sincerity and genuine concern. I however been on my own spiritual journey with these matters, and for me, I have reconciled myself with being gay whilst not in any way losing my faith in Jesus Christ. For me those who continue to argue with me about this matter are like those Gerarites. Like a servant of Isaac, or God actually, I need to not let them stop digging down and finding the fresh water. If I am blocked at Esek, or Sitnah, Contention or even enmity I just need to move along and start digging again, and eventually I will find The Rehoboth - open space, where I can be. When they were able to dig this well without being pestered by the people of Gerah, Isaac said, "Now the Lord has given us room and we will flourish in the land."   I want to say that for me, my Rehoboth was the LGBT Christians who I met through Gay Christian Network (that changed its name to Q Christian Network) and then "Courage" which had been a Gay conversion ministry, aiming at trying to change gay people to be heterosexual, but had at some point before I discovered it, realised it was a foolish objective, and it's leader, Jeremy Marks, transformed the Ministry into an LGBT affirming Christian Ministry. In 2012 Jeremy decided he would step back from this type of ministry, and a new ministry emerged called Two:23, and many of my friends who I made through Courage continued with Two 23, and I met many more who joined in the intervening years. Also, Igot involved with House of Rainbow, an international Christian ministry for LGBT people with many groups in different African countries where in some cases being LGBT is against Criminal Law, and LGBT people face a great deal of persecution. The founder and CEO of House of Rainbow is Rev'd Jide Macaulay. I must also say that the Parish of Walthamstow, became an open space for me as for the first time, I was in a Church that didn't tell me I was wrong for being gay, and did not prevent me from being involved in ministry because of my sexuality. In fact, they helped me form a group for LGBT people in our borough, Waltham Forest. We called the group "RAINBOW TR EE"  . For me, knowing that I was not alone in this struggle and that there are many more who know what it is, was a release valve, so to speak. It took me 25years, roughly, to find my Rehoboth. Like Isaac, I can say, I can flourish in the land, or in my case, my faith. 

Songs of Ascent and a Poem for Ascension Day

Over the last few weeks I have been doing little chats on Facebook Live, in which I have been reading excerpts from Henri Nouwen's excellent book, Turn my mourning into Dancing, and also sharing whatsoever thoughts that I have discovered or come across through Sermon's or online chat. 

On Monday this week, I was having my own little celebration, as it has been four years since I became a UK citizen. I mentioned on Monday, that as it was going to be Ascension Day on Thursday, I was going to spend the next few days reading some of the "Songs of Ascent" from the Book of Psalms - these are Psalms 120 - 134, that the people of Israel would regard as their songbook as they made their way up to Jerusalem to celebrate the feasts of Passover, and Shavuot (Pentecost) and other High Holy Days. 

I do not know if they had specific Psalms relating to whichever feast it was they were making their way to Jerusalem to celebrate, but suffice to say there are many of them and so given I only had three day to do, and thus only three Psalms I started with one I am very familiar with at the start of this section Psalm 121.

Psalm 121

A song of ascents.

1I lift up my eyes to the mountains—

where does my help come from?

2My help comes from the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

3He will not let your foot slip—

he who watches over you will not slumber;

4indeed, he who watches over Israel

will neither slumber nor sleep.

5The Lord watches over you—

the Lord is your shade at your right hand;

6the sun will not harm you by day,

nor the moon by night.

7The Lord will keep you from all harm—

he will watch over your life;

8the Lord will watch over your coming and going

both now and forevermore.

On Tuesday morning I was not feeling well and so as you can imagine my Facebook broadcast did not happen, so instead I decided to write this blog.  I still felt there is something of value I could share with you.  I did think about what Psalm I wanted to share and it was Psalm 124 that was going to be my Song of Ascent for Tuesday:

Psalm 124

A song of ascents. Of David.

1If the Lord had not been on our side—

let Israel say—

2if the Lord had not been on our side

when people attacked us,

3they would have swallowed us alive

when their anger flared against us;

4the flood would have engulfed us,

the torrent would have swept over us,

5the raging waters

would have swept us away.

6Praise be to the Lord,

who has not let us be torn by their teeth.

7We have escaped like a bird

from the fowler’s snare;

the snare has been broken,

and we have escaped.

8Our help is in the name of the Lord,

the Maker of heaven and earth.

 That last verse, Ps 124:8 caught my attention for a number of reasons.

It was the word HELP it appears in Psalm 121 that I read on the Monday but also in another Psalm I have written about in the past, Psalm 46. Verse 1 says:1God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble." 

So I looked into it a bit deeper.   עֶ֭זְרֵנוּ ez-re-nu 

I was reminded about the story of Eben-ezer, You can read the full account in 1 Samuel 7:2-14. But in summary, after a victory by the Israelites over their enemy, he Philistine's, Samuel laid a stone and called that stone Eben-ezer, which means stone of help, saying "Thus far has the Lord helped us.. the interesting thing, to me, about this place was that not long previously, those Philistine's had in that very same place knocked back the Israelites. So it was both a place of defeat and victory. You can read about the defeat in 1 Samuel 4.  Yet Samuel still acknowledged that God had helped them there.   I also, note that in that place, was a place of returning of the Israelites to the Lord, where they tasted and repented of their idolatry.  It could be that, although this battle happened before the writer of Psalm 124, David, was on the scene, he will have heard about Eben-ezer from his brothers, and the victory they witnessed. Maybe, Psalm 124 was written with that in mind. He could have been thinking about his own encounter with the Philistines and in particular the gigantic man, Goliath.

I share a link to a hymn that mentions Eben-ezer, Fount of every blessing.

I was also struck by the rest of that verse eight of the hundred and twenty fourth Psalm, where it says, our Help is in the name of the Lord, maker of heaven and earth. The reading from Acts 17, where Paul addressed the people in the marketplace in Athens. He said he noticed that they were a religious people and had statues for the many different deities,  and even one shrine to "the unknown God"
He said that he would speak to them about this God, because this God was the (one and only) creator of heaven and earth, and in whom we "Live and move and have our being" as, Paul noted some of their own poets had acknowledged.

Ascension Day

Today is Ascension Day, the day we think about Jesus rising up into the clouds to return to "The Heavens".  Well, I share with you a poem I have written for Ascension Day:

The moment had to come,
The time when His visit was over, 

They thought it had all been over, over a month before,

When they saw him hanging dead on a wooden cross 

However, Jesus work is not yet done,

There would be the amazing surprise,

For Mary in the garden, 

For Cleophas on the road, 

For Thomas in the locked room, 
and for many others' eyes. 

Jesus met them by the lakeside 
And in those familiar spots, 

Jesus touched and spoke healing to Peter 
And restored trust and love,

And reminded each and everyone, 

That in and through us, 
His work is not yet done.

On that day, just before He went, 

He gave us this command:

Go and make disciples of all nations - 
Everyone's included!

Baptise them in the name of the Father 
And of the Son 
And of the Holy Spirit,

Teach them everything you know - 

but go, 
Go, and keep on going, 

For I, will always be with you

And I will always be where you are going to, 

Even to the end of Time. 

Then as the disciples watched,

Jesus went up, 
Up and kept on going up, 
Into the sky, 

Until He was no longer visible to their natural eye.

Poem is written by me, just now, so it's ©John Fairlamb 2020

Advent Poem 2019

Start off with the End in mind
Whilst the End doesn't justify the means -
The End really does give the means meaning.

Advent - four weeks to look forward to the End
In the End, the King is coming!
Everything will be alright,
in the End.

That's real HOPE.
We look forward to everlasting JOY
Where PEACE is the rule and
LOVE is our guide in life.

The End is not the end —
it's a new beginning.
It can happen at any time,
And King is forever your friend.

World without End
Amen

Poetry at Pride - Waltham Forest Pride 2019

Yesterday, at Pride I was scheduled to read one of my poems but due to the inclement weather, that part of the program that was going to take place in the open air was understandably cancelled.

But I prepared it including some introductory thoughts and so if you might indulge me, I would like to share with you what I was going to say, including, of course the poem.

Homophobia takes many forms and they are it all to do with sexual activity.

You might have seen recently a news item about a nine year old boy called Charlie, whose love for musical theatre has turned him, unfairly into a target of bullies at school. This understandably made Charlie sad. His drama teacher posted on Twitter about this, and asked people to respond with the hashtag #CheerupCharlie, which the Musical Theatre community with stars from the West End sending great encouraging messages. 

You might rightly ask, "Why in 2019 in the UK, is a boy's interest in musical theatre - singing and dancing - a cause for people to pick on him and abuse him, physically, verbally and emotionally?" 

The reason is, as I see it there are very strong gender-based stereotypes about what boy's are girls are supposed to like. 

This is my answer to those stereotypes, written in December 2014. 

Some boys like to play with trucks

Other boys like dolls

Some boys practice rugby rucks

Others, gymnastic flicks and rolls,

All that could be said of girls,

Some like their hair short, others in curls

A toy’s a toy, a plaything, a tool,

A thing that they learn with, at home or in school.

One child wears jeans and a t-shirt,

Another, a blouse and skirt,

Whether girl or boy, it doesn’t really matter

Help the child feel good, whether thin, or fatter.

“Your gender-blender agenda,” I hear you declaim,

“It’ll bring us all down! it’s such a shame!”

I don’t know this agenda of which you speak,

What I know is, God made us all unique.

Now let me tell you that’s not my game,

I don’t want all children to be the same.

Boxing or Ballet,

That should be A-okay,

Doesn't matter what people say,

They don't make you lesbian, bi, straight or gay.

Many achievements towards which children aspire,

Whoever they are, let them do as they desire.

Some people take toys out of boxes, then

They put their children in,

Nicely labeled, each one to define

Girl aged six, boy aged nine.

Toys can fire a child’s imagination,

Help them discover, they’re a special creation.

© J. Fairlamb 28-12-14.

Ann Widdecombe: You cannot condemn Prince Harry and Meghan for championing LGBT rights.

This week, The Duke and Duchess of Sussex, Harry and Meghan celebrated the birth of their son, Archie.

The government conceded that UK will participate in European Union Parliamentary elections,

And Ann Widdecombe announced that she will stand as aa candidate to be MEP for Brexit Party. 

Also, by coincidence I read a bit of old .news, though it was new to me. Shortly before Harry and Meghan married, they let it be known that they would champion the rights of LGBT people around the world. Anne, writing in the Daily Express,  said that they should not champion rights but should champion plights.

I responded in an open letter to Anne in the following Open Letter


Open letter to Ann Widdecombe

Dear Miss Widdecombe,

I realise that this letter is a very slow response to something that was published a year ago. This is because I only just came across the opinion piece you wrote for the Daily Express with the misleading headline:
“Meghan Markle will be a breath of fresh air in a stuffy family” says Ann Widdecombe.

I would take you to take you to task for that statement alone, except that there is so much more. Not only is it deeply insulting to Queen Elizabeth, but it is extremely rich coming from one of the most stuffy people I know. What was made to sound like a compliment to Duchess of Sussex, was in fact completely undermined by your real purpose of the opinion piece.

You wrote: Earlier that week my doubts had grown when reports appeared in the press about how she and Harry were going to champion the rights of the LGBT community.
First, royals don't champion rights, they champion plights. That's what Diana did with the victims of AIDS and landmines and very effective she was too.

I am not sure what qualifies you, Ann, to lecture royalty on what they may or may not champion.
Why on earth should the royals not champion human rights? You say they are championing the rights of the LGBT community — actually they are the rights of LGBT people.

How can you take the view that human rights are controversial? These are the same rights that you take for granted, and would become extremely vocal if you believed that your rights were not being respected.

Here in the United Kingdom, the road to equality began in 1967 with the limited decriminalisation of homosexuality in England and Wales, with changes in Scotland and Northern Ireland coming many years later, and has continued to this present day , with the occasional blip, such as the notorious Section 28, of which I understand you were a huge fan. Now we have equal marriage (except in Northern Ireland) which is very significant step towards full equality, though, full equality is not yet completely realised.

However, the UK is way ahead in terms of equality than many other countries, including a significant number of Commonwealth countries that still criminalise homosexuality with punishments as severe as death by stoning, in Brunei, and lengthy imprisonment. So for many LGBT people who are citizens of the Commonwealth and subjects of the Queen, their human rights are being denied in the most horrendous ways. Their very right to life itself is challenged. People should have a right to protections under the law. That is, if someone threatens the life of a person, they have a right to seek help from the police and if they are the victims of crimes, they have a right to report those crimes to the police and have them investigated and have the perpetrators charged and prosecuted. However many LGBT people in these countries cannot risk making such a report. Lesbians who are subjected to what the the perpetrators regard as “corrective rape”.

You say the royals champion plights - I agree, if by that you mean speaking out against the plights of many shamefully treated. Championing the rights of LGBT people in the Commonwealth is to speak out against their shameful treatment by regimes that do not treat all their citizens with equality and justice.

This is a moral issue and not merely a political issue, as you would have us believe. Equality is a core British Value — this pertains to sexual orientation and gender identity as much as it applies to race, religion or sex. Since the Royals represent Britain, it is right that they also speak out on issues of equality and against instances, of which there are too many, of human rights abuses against people by reason of their being lesbian, gay, bisexual or transgender.

Every year many asylum seekers come to UK as refugees. A significant number of those will have faced persecution in their own countries because they are LGBT. If we could prevail upon countries to change their policy in regard to LGBT people, we might be able to reduce those who seek asylum for that reason. But that should not be our primary motivation.

I am fully aware that most hostility towards LGBT people is wrapped up in religious perception that homosexuality is sinful. As a Christian myself, I do not accept that characterisation and believe such an interpretation, at least as far as Christianity is concerned, is based on a faulty hermeneutic. However, even if that were true in regard to Christianity, we cannot impose on the entire populace laws based entirely on a religious doctrine where not everyone subscribes to those doctrines.

The Duke and Duchess of Sussex understand this, clearly Ann, you do not.

Yours in complete sincerity,

John

_____________________________________________________________________________________

I am not so gullible as to think that Anne would change her perspective one iota, and I certainly would not hold my breath for an apology from her, but I do hope people in the area where she stands for election, will read this and really understand that Ann Widdecombe  is essentially against the human rights of LGBT people. Please do not elect this person as an MEP.