by Hilary White, Rome Correspondent
LONDON, April 13, 2012 (LifeSiteNews.com) – Boris Johnson, the Conservative Party mayor of London, is being sued by a Christian organization whose bus advertisements for overcoming same-sex attraction he ordered pulled.
Saying, “Not gay, ex-gay, post-gay, and proud! Get over it,” the nixed slogans were the work of the Core Issues Trust, a Christian organization that helps churches minister to those who want to overcome their temptations to homosexual behavior. The ads were also backed by the group Anglican Mainstream, a worldwide organization of Anglicans who seek to restore traditional Christianity to their communion. The ads were due to run for two weeks on London’s iconic red buses, starting from Monday. Now, however, the group is reported to be instructing lawyers to launch a suit.
The campaign was cleared by industry regulator the Advertising Standards Authority. It was intended to be an answer to a similar pro-homosexual ad campaign that said, “Some people are gay. Get over it,” sponsored by the homosexualist lobby group Stonewall.
Core Issues co-director Mike Davidson responded to Johnson’s action, saying, “I didn’t realise censorship was in place.”
“We went through the correct channels and we were encouraged by the bus company to go through their procedures. They okayed it and now it has been pulled.
“It is of deep concern that there can only be one point of view and that is the point of view of individuals who are determined to push through gay marriage and apparently believe that homosexuality cannot be altered in any possible way. That is not a universally held view.”
Johnson reacted after a chorus of rage from homosexualist campaigners, who argue that homosexuality can only ever be a natural life-long variant of human sexuality, the cornerstone of the homosexualist political schema.
The far-left Guardian newspaper reports that the mayor, who is facing an election next month, contacted the paper to announce that he had banned the ads “within two hours of their contents becoming public,” to stave off a political backlash from the homosexualist lobby.
“London is one of the most tolerant cities in the world and intolerant of intolerance. It is clearly offensive to suggest that being gay is an illness that someone recovers from and I am not prepared to have that suggestion driven around London on our buses,” the Guardian quoted the mayor as saying.
The incident illustrates the growing reality that even to assert that there are some people afflicted with unwanted same-sex attraction who do not want to live the homosexual lifestyle, is now regarded as “anti-gay.”
Lesley Pilkington, a Christian psychotherapist, who is under investigation by the British Association for Counselling and Psychotherapy for her therapy for homosexuals, told LifeSiteNews.com that she is not surprised that Johnson would get “cold feet,” over such an ad.
“On the one hand, it’s shocking, such a lack of freedom of speech, but on the other, I’m not too surprised,” she said.
“Boris Johnson is very concerned to get re-elected, and there is such a lot of intimidation on the part of gay activists. You just don’t say the kind of things this bus campaign is saying if you want to get reelected as mayor.”
“I think people don’t understand just how political it is in the UK,” she said. “Anything to do with the gay activists’ agenda, particularly with the marriage campaign, is political dynamite.”
The climate right now, she said, is immensely hostile to anyone who opposes the homosexualist political agenda. She recounted the story of a Christian Conservative Party MP, David Burrowes, who received death threats after he signed a petition to retain the current legal definition of marriage.
Pilkington said that the traditional reserve of British political debate is a thing of the past on these issues, and there is growing tolerance for overtly anti-Christian rhetoric. And it is having the desired effect; Christians, she said, are responding by remaining silent: “There’s just such a lot of fear.”
Mrs. Pilkington related the story of a conversation with a Catholic bishop, Philip Tartaglia of Paisley, Scotland, who gave the keynote address at a conference in Oxford on religious freedom.
The bishop had asked Mrs. Pilkington why there is such a lot of political power behind the homosexualist political movement. She replied that, while it is “good to have an intellectual discussion” on the impact of equalities and hate crimes legislation and related issues, “at the end of the day what it’s about is intimidation and bullying and fear” by homosexuals to silence opposition.
“People are afraid, so they agree rather than face opposition that is aggressive. So people who have the information, those who know about the dangers of the homosexual life, don’t speak out.
“The bishop totally agreed with me, saying that he was glad that I as a psychotherapist could say that, but he couldn’t. People would expect him to say what I said but he couldn’t say it.
“My question is why can’t he say it? Why should that silence him, people saying ‘you would say that,’ when in fact he doesn’t.”
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