Defining Bigotry.

I just read that Stonewall, the British gay rights organisation, has given their annual Bigot of the Year award to a Scottish cardinal for opposing gay marriage. This raises an interesting point.

A bigot is someone who holds an opinion based purely on prejudice and not on reason, but that isn’t the case with the Cardinal. He is not only a Christian but an officer of the Church, and the Church’s pre-eminent document is the Holy Bible which explicitly forbids homosexuality and decrees marriage to be a holy institution. Whether you agree with the Bible or not (and it just so happens that I don’t) isn’t the point. The point is that, given the context of the Cardinal’s professional position, his opposition to gay marriage is entirely rational. In fact, I don’t see how he could possibly take any other view and still justify his employment.  And whether or not you regard the Bible itself as prejudiced is also beside the point, since the Cardinal didn’t write it; his job is to follow its edicts.

What I find even more interesting is that Stonewall apparently seem unable to acknowledge the Cardinal’s reasoning with regard to his personal position on the matter. And that, ironically, means that it’s Stonewall who are exhibiting bigotry, not the Cardinal.