Radical Fundamentalist Launch Another Attack

What should we do when a radical, fundamentalist group of religious zealots launch a direct attack on our law making bodies, parliament, the democratic process, and our general Western way of life? I speak of course of the Catholic Church which is, at the moment, seeking to do all of the above by launching a media and parliamentary offensive against the proposed Human Fertilisation and Embryology Bill.

The Catholic Church has a long and undistinguished history of interfering with the lives of both its adherents and those who choose to live outside its auspice. If you don’t think that the church influences the lives of those who don’t join you should speak to the victims of the Inquisition and those scientists, like Galileo, whose search for truth has brought them into conflict with the church’s perceived wisdom. Okay, so the Catholic Church is not seeking to impose its will by the gun, suicide bombers and other direct terror tactics, it is however just as guilty of trying to impose a theocracy as are the radical Muslims. I also find it interesting that the United States, which initiated the so called “War On Terror” and set itself implacably against Islamic fundamentalism (dragging us by proxy and by Tony Blair along with them) is letting the radical, Evangelical Christian right establish its own theocratic regime.

In what is supposed to be the enlightened times of the twenty first century shouldn’t we completely disavow any religious or ethical system access to the power to impose its will on those who choose not to subscribe to their particular brand of beliefs and ethics?