That’s what the Darling Bud of May is supposed to be, and she should receive the benefit of the doubt so early in her tenure. However, Mrs May imprudently asked to be judged on her past, and her record doesn’t make one feel overly optimistic.
Far be it from me to suggest that a Western statesman must be a pious Christian. Desirable as this may be, considering the Christian foundations of our civilisation in general and statehood in particular, it’s such an unrealistic expectation that one would be ill-advised to hold one’s breath.
However, it’s plausible to expect that, if a statesman claims to be a pious Christian, that’s what he – or in this instance she – is. The Darling Bud indeed so claims, but the ensuing expectation is instantly frustrated by her campaign speech.
Here are some choice bits: “I believe marriage should be for everyone, regardless of their sexual orientation…”
Or species? All right, let’s not indulge in reductio ad absurdum – what Mrs May said is absurd enough in light of her claim to Christian piety and indeed conservatism.
A devout Christian can’t support this profanation of marriage by definition. An educated conservative can’t, also by definition, follow the singular antecedent ‘everyone’ with the plural personal pronoun ‘their’.
The first aberration betokens adherence to political correctness, which is in part a concerted assault on Christianity and its civilisation. The second aberration also betokens adherence to political correctness, which is in part a concerted assault on Christianity and its culture, including linguistic aesthetics and precision.
But do let’s press on: “Equal marriage was a hugely significant social reform. And it also made a powerful and important statement that as a country we value and respect everyone.”
A Christian, or indeed any averagely intelligent person, ought to understand that respecting everyone shouldn’t mean respecting everything. The distinction was made by St. Augustine: “Cum dilectione hominum et odio vitiorum” (roughly, “With love for mankind and hatred of sins”). The phrase is usually rendered as “love the sinner but hate the sin”.
On her supposedly regular attendances of church services, Mrs May must have heard of the Sermon on the Mount, specifically Matthew 5: 43-48, where Christ taught loving not only our friends but also our enemies.
Yet nowhere did he or any of his apostles or any intelligent person ever say that loving sinners also involves loving what they do. The Darling Bud’s statement was thus an ignorant non sequitur.
Then: “For me, equality is about fairness. It is simply wrong for anyone to face discrimination or abuse because of who they are or who they love.”
This is neither grown-up nor conservative nor clever (nor grammatical: one should say ‘whom they love’ in formal speech). Equality, Mrs May, other than equality before God, is about unfairness.
Modern egalitarianism is emphatically about overriding what’s fair. Fairness is giving everyone his just desserts without prejudice or discrimination. If today’s governments practised this concept, half of our population would starve. It’s only by discriminating against talent and enterprise that a government can enforce any semblance of equality.
And surely we’re allowed to discriminate against, say, those who love children inappropriately? Or against kleptomaniacs? Or those who love animals in other than sentimental ways?
Nor does opposing homomarriage, which is the context of May’s statement, constitute discrimination. On the contrary, state licence for it discriminates against those holding traditional, decent, intelligent and, well, Judaeo-Christian views on such subjects.
Let’s go on: “A Conservative government under my leadership would be unequivocally committed to supporting LGBT people, and continuing the vital task of tackling hate crime, homophobia and transphobia – both in the UK and around the world.”
I have to thank Mrs May for enriching my vocabulary, for I haven’t heard ‘transphobia’ before. ‘Homophobia’ I’ve heard, all too often, but wish I hadn’t.
According to its dictionary definition, a phobia is “a type of anxiety disorder, usually defined as a persistent fear of an object or situation”. Lacking psychiatric training, I can’t state with certainty that this anxiety disorder, a persistent fear of homosexuals, doesn’t exist. I can only say that I’ve never met anyone so afflicted.
I have, however, met many extremely intelligent people, Christian or otherwise, who think homosexuality is wrong and homomarriage is a travesty of a traditional and vitally important institution. It’s such people who are accused of ‘homophobia’ by leftist trendies. Such trendies may be any number of things, but they can be neither conservative nor Christian nor intelligent – all those things the Darling Bud is supposed to be.
Moving right along: “I firmly believe in an open, inclusive, One Nation agenda of social reform which will change our country for the better.”
The kind of social reform Mrs May talks about has been going on for at least 70 years, and it has manifestly failed to “change our country for the better”. In fact it has made it a whole lot worse.
A conservative, intelligent and – God forbid – Christian statesman would know this. But Mrs May is none of those things. She’s a modern politician. Say no more.