VERSION|0.5.1|NAME|Steve|DATE|1362992692|CONTENT|But the very next article (deliberate?) presented the other side of allowing a religious viewpoint into a political debate. It is all very lovely and fluffy when the Archbishop criticises the government’s attitude to the poor, but when the same religious viewpoint is actually enacting laws to prevent women from having abortions in Northern Ireland it’s an entirely different matter.

I think that the difference between these issues is that in the first case the underpinning morals behind the argument are relatively universal (outside of the Tory party, that is). So we can ignore the minor detail of where Justin Welby got his inspiration from for his criticism, and concentrate instead on the validity of the criticism itself. On the second matter however, the underlying moral is absolutely not shared outside of religions, and therefore there is no debate to be had. What is happening in NI is an imposition of religion on people’s lives, which I am surprised is not illegal under the Human Rights Act.

In other words, religious viewpoints in politics are fine when the religious bit is completely irrelevant. Else not.|IP-ADDRESS|10.0.119.228, 217.36.222.79, 10.37.47.204|MODERATIONFLAG|