Fr Ray Blake Slams Major Political Parties in The Argus

"Read all about it! Local Priest warns of hedonistic gay lobby!"

Fr Ray Blake hit the front page and page 5 of The Argus today, Brighton and Hove's local newspaper. The paper, driven as they are by sales, zoomed in on a comment he made on his blog concerning the fact that all the major political parties court the vote of the "hedonistic gay lobby." Obviously, in Brighton, making a comment like that is like painting the interior of Brighton Pavillion red and letting a herd of bulls through the front door.

'A church leader has claimed Labour has become contrary to the spirit of Christianity. Father Ray Blake, of St Mary Magdalen in Brighton, said faith communities in Brighton and Hove were being overlooked in favour of the city’s “hedonistic gay lobby”.

The Roman Catholic priest, whose church is in Brighton Pavilion constituency, stated he did not believe any of the parties standing for election locally represented his religious views. Writing in a blog to his parishioners he said: “I always used to vote Labour but I think that is impossible now, so contrary they have become to the very spirit of the Christian faith.”

He added: “It is very tempting in Brighton for political candidates to pander to the more vociferous elements of the hedonistic "gay lobby" and ignore the "faith" communities and their concerns. If that happens in the next election that would be more than foolish. Those who can get themselves out to church on a Sunday can normally get themselves along to vote. It is really quite outrageous how ignorant most politicians are about our faith despite, its contribution to western artistic culture and thinking.”'

Father Blake added he would like to get a group of Catholics together to work out which party he could vote for. But parliamentary hopefuls have claimed that elected representatives act on behalf of whole communities.

As a parishioner of St Mary Magdalen's Church, I know very well that Fr Ray Blake is not saying that all gay men in Brighton are hedonistic, nor is he saying that all gay men in Brighton are in the "hedonistic gay lobby". He knows this because in his congregation he has men and women who have a same-sex attraction. He is known for being kind and generous to all, no matter what orientation some of his congregation are. This is, after all, Brighton.

What he is referring to is a politically powerful, active gay movement which campaigns only to further the LGBT cause, at the expense of the freedom and liberty of, say Catholics and Christians or anyone, religious or not, who doesn't go along championning the big gay rights campaign. In the pursuit of the goal of 'gay rights' being extended even towards 'marriage', the gay movement is moving onto territory over which the Church has taught down the centuries is sacrosanct. Marriage is a union between one man and one woman, which, when it takes place with the Catholic Church, it says, is holy, sacred and indissoluable. Fr Ray Blake is coming in for criticism on The Argus website, so be absolute darlings and defend him against the enemies of Faith and Reason.

It is certainly unfortunate that The Argus have deliberately focussed on his comments regarding the gay lobby, because, if you read what Fr Blake is saying, it is quite clear that he is expressing frustration, not only as a Priest but as an intelligent and politically informed man in modern Britain, that all of the major political parties are standing on the same platform. They are all pro-abortion, rather than pro-life; they are all in bed with Stonewall, Marie Stopes and the BPAS; they are all listening only to the LGBT minority, over the perfectly legitimate concerns of the Church and other major religions; they are all in a quite striking way, against the poor, the homeless, the abandoned, unemployed and dispossessed and under Labour the trends towards a chasm between the rich and poor have increased. None of the major political parties are expressing a concern for the whole country, or in Brighton, the whole community. They stand up for only a few groups, most if not all of whom are concerned with certain causes for 'freedom' at the expense of freedom itself.

Brighton is a hedonistic town and has been for a very long time. I can tell you now that I live very near this road. It doesn't matter who takes over the Hare and Hounds pub, it always feels like there's a corpse in the room. Anyway, I digress. Every year, Brighton closes down to make way for the "hedonistic gay lobby" at Gay Pride. Every year the 'street drinking' ban which sees the poor and homeless hounded around town by cops and quasi cops is dropped to make way for the big Gay Pride parade. Every year the parade ends up at Preston Park where every drug under the sun is consumed while the poor and homeless get banged up for 18 months because they've genuine addictions. The clean up takes a day or two. Every year, I hope it rains on their parade. I'd love one day to see a Eucharistic procession down this road and see what the Council has to say about that. Our Most Holy Faith is not about us. It is about God. That is the difference between the 'hedonistic gay lobby' and us, whether we are gay, straight, bi or like the way we feel in a Dorothy Perkins cardigan. Of course there's no hedonistic gay lobby in Brighton. Move along, now, nothing to see here...