Ann Widdecombe is a former British Conservative Party politician and has been a novelist since 2000. She is a Privy Councillor and was the Member of Parliament for Maidstone from 1987 to 1997 and for Maidstone and The Weald from 1997 to 2010.
She was a social conservative and a member of the Conservative Christian Fellowship.
She retired from politics at the 2010 general election. Since 2002 she has also made many television and radio appearances, including as a television presenter. She is a convert from Anglicanism to Roman Catholicism.
Ann Widdecombe recently defended her stance against gay marriage proposals via saying:
"Is it bigoted to recognise that the complementarity of a man and a woman in a union open to procreation is unique and cannot be replicated by other unions?"
"The real bigots, those who really deserve to be described as such, the real extremists, the real nasties, are those who believe that those who dissent from their views have no right to do so and that the state itself should silence them."
So, these are strong words herein from this highly opinionated woman that will understandably upset many people within the Gay Lobby.
My interest however in whether or not she is a bigot started some time ago, long ‘before’ this event.
The following clip was accessed from the Catholic Times, 9th October 1994, in which Widdecombe rants on about Paganism and Occultism.
Judging
by her inflammatory comments would this diatribe not indicate that she is
highly prejudiced against Pagan folks, via her misleading and extremely
dangerous reference to grave desecrations and the Pagan religion?
Her
unwarranted comments against spiritualists may also fall into the same category
of fundamentalist narrow-mindedness against others.
Ann
Widdecombe likes to petrify naïve parents about imaginary dangers of minority faiths,
yet conveniently fails to ever highlight the ‘real’ religious predators that
reside within the confines of her own bogus belief system.
If this was not enough to bring in allegations of religious intolerance, Widdecombe outrageously attacked the Pagan religion once again in 18th June 1995.
Her grounds for leaving the CofE were many and varied it
seems. However, it would appear that Catholicism greatly appealed to her restricted
belief that women should ‘know their place’ as she stated:
“The
ordination of women was the last straw”
Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ann_Widdecombe
It seems to me that unless one shares Ann Widdecombe’s fundamentalist Christian zeal for life then one is very likely to be perceived by her as the “Enemy”!
It seems to me that unless one shares Ann Widdecombe’s fundamentalist Christian zeal for life then one is very likely to be perceived by her as the “Enemy”!
The Satanic Ritual Abuse scare was created by evangelists, ruined whole families and cost the trusting UK tax payer millions.
Blinkered church attitudes just like Widdecombe’s helped to fuel the fires of intolerance and ignorance and have no place in a modern pluralistic, multi-faith community.
No! Such ecclesiastical-based closed minds should be resigned to the Dark Ages, along with the horrors of the Inquisition, where they truly belong.
This woman may therefore seem like a crusading saint to some, yet a raving religious bigot to others.
Personally, as a peace-loving Pagan I find such intolerance utterly nauseating.
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