Last weekend I had a bad experience that made me re-evaluate a lot of things I took for granted. I do recognise that my posts often tend to be contentious and sometimes downright controversial.  Last week I questioned a statement made by Pope Benedict about gay people which resulted in over 100 comments – strongly disagreeing with one another but good-natured and reasoned debate for the most part. For those who wonder why I often raise gay issues, it is simply because I believe gay people are treated appallingly by society and especially by Christians who should know better. My son Chris is gay and I’ve come to learn a huge amount as I’ve addressed the issue objectively. For me, it’s a justice issue. My equal opportunities statement says simply,

Every person is significant, important and of value and deserves to be treated with dignity, honour and justice

My review of  The Iron Lady ruffled some feathers as I was anything but sympathetic to the frail old lady portrayed in the film. It attracted positive and negative responses – but all friendly. My blog on Why I am a Welshman didn’t upset anyone but I was forced to issue a fatwah on my good friend Luke for his outrageous comments.

So last Saturday I read a claim in the Guardian that a drop in Tesco’s share price was ‘due to an answer to prayer’ for Stephen Green of Christian pressure group Christian Voice who protested outside shops last year after Tesco decided to sponsor the family area at London Gay Pride celebrations. I was angry about this as Stephen Green spouts absolute rubbish at the best of times, but to claim that God would answer such a vindictive prayer was insane and ludicrous.

As a result I posted that Stephen Green’s claims that God had judged Tesco were nonsense and that Green did more damage to Christianity than Hawking, Dawkins, Hitchens and militant Islam combined. What I didn’t expect were flames from my Christian friends quoting Bible verses: ‘Let him who is without sin cast the first stone…’ and various other personal attacks.

I’m pretty thick-skinned generally but this penetrated all my defences. I have worked hard for some years to build bridges between the Christian community in which I place myself and my many friends who don’t share my faith. Because I live and die by my equal opportunities statement above, I value all my friends equally. The friends who have touched my heart the most are those who formerly were part of a Christian group who have gone through divorces, or have come out as gay, or simply have lost their faith. They have been subjected to cruel, bitter, judgemental criticism by Christians and have been totally rejected. All of which is utterly contrary to the teachings of Jesus Christ whom the critics claim to serve. When I read the comments on my status I understood how they felt: despised and rejected of men.

I suspended my Facebook account and have just resurrected it to give this explanation to my friends and to give myself some time to reflect and regroup. And what is the ultimate irony? I received three concerned emails from friends who had noticed I’d disappeared and were checking on me. Two of those people were gay and all three would identify themselves as atheists.