Distraught British conservatives prove my point

As a follow-up to the previous blog entry, Conservative Party leader David Cameron has announced that he supports Tony Blair’s refusal to exempt Catholic adoption agencies from the new law outlawing discrimination against homosexuals. This has, in the ritualized language of the press, set off a “furor” among conservatives against Cameron. But what is the basis of the conservatives’ furor? Are they opposed to the Equality Act 2006, which bars all discrimination based on religion and belief? Nope. Are they opposed to the Sexual Orientation Regulations, which applies the principles of the Equality Act to homosexuals and forces adoption agencies to let homosexuals adopt children? Nope. In fact, all they oppose is Blair’s and Cameron’s failure to allow Catholic adoption agencies to exempt themselves from the law.

Tory MP Douglas Carswell said: “I will not be taking David Cameron’s position on this. I will be supporting the Churches.

“This isn’t about gay rights, it’s about whether we should be interfering in the very good job that a part of civil society does on our behalf for children who are hard to place.”

See? Carswell has no problem with the criminalization of discrimination against homosexuals as a general principle. He just feels that it’s taking things too far to apply that principle to adoption agencies that are doing a good job. He imagines that he can concede the rightness of the totalitarian non-discrimination law in all cases, but keep it from applying to a particular case that he cares about. In brief, he wants the government to make an unprincipled exception to liberalism. The problem is that, in the short or long run (in this case it’s the very short run), the unprincipled exception will not save you from liberalism. The only thing that will save you from liberalism is to renounce it, root and branch, and fight it as you would fight slavery or death.

Posted by Lawrence Auster at January 29, 2007 08:17 PM | Send