No need for name-calling

It is neither helpful nor appropriate for a BBC presenter to label a high percentage of Britain's Catholics, Evangelicals, Moslems and Jews 'neanderthal' as John Beattie did today on his Radio Scotland program when discussing attitudes to homosexuality. Like it or not, all three of the world's main monotheistic religions teach that homosexual acts are wrong. Like it or not, many people are faithful followers of those religions. Calling them 'neanderthal' is just as bad as calling homosexuals 'perverts'. It's also lazy. Giving someone a negative label means that you can treat them as less than human and ignore their views. It's intolerant and it ignores the fact that, in the discussion today, it was plain that abuse towards gay sportsmen was most likely to happen in a football stadium, not in a church, synagogue or mosque. That, in Calton's experience, is generally the case. When he worked in a male-dominated environment, the gay-bashers were not the guys who went to the weekly workplace Bible study but the heterosexual blokes who wouldn't be seen dead in a place of worship (unless you count pubs in that category). It's time the biased broadcasting corporation stopped taking cheap pot shots at religious people and started investigating the real reasons behind abuse of homosexuals. It's a far from simple issue but one thing is certain - calling people names does not promote understanding.

PS. Calton does not think anyone should have to suffer abuse for their sexuality or their religion.