Moral crusade

Published on 01/08/2012 00:00

Brian Allan’s letter (“The road to hell”, 31 July), takes the subject of heterosexuality in the book Fifty Shades of Grey to opine on how the “wishes of the minority become the new standards the majority must accept”.

The connection to the recent move to permit same-sex marriage didn’t escape me and leads me to ask why is it that so many religionists are so unnaturally obsessed by gay sex.

Before same-sex marriage, a ceremony the religious are all perfectly at liberty to absolve themselves from, there was a massive campaign against repealing a law that prevented gays from getting an appropriate sex education in schools; 
before that it was equalising the age of consent; before that there was a steady stream of 
anti-gay campaigns constricting the parameters of licentiousness, blasphemy, moral policing, advertising for partners, decriminalisation of homosexuality, erotica and “obscenity”.

This is not religion: it is sadomasochistic sexual voyeurism.

Garry Otton

Secular Scotland

Broughton Street

Edinburgh

Referring to the “unabated obsession with sex”, Brian Allan (Letters, 31 July) claims increasing secularisation is “forcing” people to make choices they would 
rather not make.

I am not sure what choices are being forced on Mr Allan against his will. Is he being forced to buy and read books he considers immoral and dangerous, like Fifty Shades of Grey?

Is he being forced to have a gay relationship? Is he being forced to take part in “aberrant practices” in his bedroom?

What about the aberrant practices listed in the Old Testament, which contains numerous passages that glorify and even encourage its readers to commit rape, murder, misogyny, genocide, infanticide, torture, ethnic cleansing and human sacrifice, among others?

Is Mr Allan happy that our education system forces children to read such a book and consider it sacred?

Alistair McBay

National Secular Society

Atholl Crescent

Edinburgh

Oh, Brian Allan’s letter made me laugh.

Fifty Shades of Grey poses a far greater threat to the nation’s literary standards than to our moral wellbeing.

And children will almost certainly be repelled by the idea of reading something their mothers are excited about.

ANGELA INNES

Dundas Street

Edinburgh