Blasphemy Law?
For God's sake...
The Justice Minister has a pretty tough job, all things considered. He is responsible for the law and order of the country, as well as various legal equality and immigration issues. So, in this time of chastened economic woe, social difficulty and spiralling crime rates, what would be amongst the first pieces of law to come into force this year? A law making blasphemy punishable by a €25,000 fine, naturally.
It’s almost as if Ireland enjoys being a laughing stock! In the time since the bill was proposed and subsequently passed, the law has garnered attention from all over the world, with the secularists and atheists paying inevitably close interest. They almost uniformly decried the law as a return to the Dark Ages, which in our case was the 1950’s. The middle ground was baffled and even Ireland’s merry band of Holy Joes was wondering what prompted all of this.
According to the Minister at hand, Dermot Ahern, a definition was required by the constitution on advice of the Attorney General. The only other action, claims Ahern, would be to call a referendum, which apparently the country could ill-afford right now. Maybe the 25 grand for saying ungodly things will come in handy for the exchequer?
On one hand, the law is so hard to police the whole thing is probably rather pointless, and any potential subjective abuse will be undermined by, with any luck, prosecutorial indifference, but nevertheless, a principle is at stake here. Not unlike the ASBO’s debate that inflamed the country a few years ago, such laws have symbolic weight more pertinent than their real life implementation.
Is it really OK that in a modern society such a law should be allowed to stand? Is it okay that freedom of expression is curbed, even in principle, in the name of arbitrarily protecting a values system most of the country has turned away from? In this world of tense relations between religious and secular society and the rise of fundamentalists of all stripes, is this really the time to ring fence or tippy-toe around religious belief?
This country has shifted a great deal from the days when the Parish Priest was a de facto judge, jury and executioner without a gavel or hatchet of public morals. Yet our laws still reflect vestiges of a way of life and narrow consideration long since departed. I’d consider myself a man possessing faith, but it’s baffling to me that any God worth believing in would need or even want mortal legal protection.
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Posted by : claire2618 - 20 days ago
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