Gay Police Association guilty of 'faith crime'

Remember this advertisement by the Gay Police Association? Well, the Christians have won a rare victory. The advertisement received 533 complaints – more than any other this year – and the GPA has been banned from using it again, after the Advertising Standards Authority upheld assertions that it breaches codes covering truthfulness, accuracy and offence.

Cranmer reported on this earlier, and it was his considered opinion that it constituted a ‘faith crime’ against Christians. The ASA accused the GPA of making ‘false claims’ that Christians were responsible for a sharp rise in 'hate crime' attacks on homosexuals. They also found:

• The GPA failed to provide evidence backing up the claims of an increase in attacks.
• Used images of spilt blood to give the impression that all the incidents involved violence. This was not true.
• Falsely implied Christians were responsible for the incidents it was highlighting. In fact, even the GPA admitted that around a quarter of allegations involved Muslims.

It is the last of this points that interests His Grace. A massive 25% of these ‘homophobic' attacks involved Muslims, yet the GPA would not have dared to juxtapose the Qur’an with blood. They chose to focus on the unsubstantiated assertion that Christians were the principal offenders. The advertisement was therefore a deliberate attempt to stir up hatred against Christians. Unfortunately, the CPS has ruled out prosecution, but it is reported that the officers involved could face disciplinary action.

Cranmer rather doubts that they will. It was, after all, only the Christians who took offence.