Conservative PPC Philippa Stroud ran prayer sessions to "cure" gays

"atlantis - No, not all faiths are like this. In case you hadn't noticed, there has been uproar in the Catholic and Anglican faiths on precisely this issue."

Ok, so what about muslim MP's then should they not run?

atlantis - No, not all faiths are like this. In case you hadn't noticed, there has been uproar in the Catholic and Anglican faiths on precisely this issue.

The Anglican communion is changing a great deal, and needs support in its liberal wing. Not all churches run this Alpha course-style stuff.

there is a marked disjunction between the GB Catholic laity and the leaders of the Catholic church on this.

It all depends on who you think "the Church" is - laity or leaders. I say, supposrt the progressive element.

It demonstrates such a gross misunderstanding of what it means to be gay. I'm not, but we rented a room to a gay friend for seven years. I couldn't possibly ever imagine him to swing the other way - it's a fundamental part of who he is.

Vesela - so true about motley crew - could they not do better.

Our tory candidate is a scumbag too.

He keeps saying that he is the face of the new conservatives - that he wouldn't have been able to be a candidate under the old conservatives.

And then you google him and ... yuk. He's a liar and more.

apparently, even the local office don't like him.

Face of the new conservatives indeed. I am fervently hoping he is not elected. I will cringe.

Now while i'm not defending any of the god squads churches attitude towards homosexuality, I find this very telling;

""The church's approach was not that it was sinful to be homosexual but that it was sinful to act on it."

Isn't that the view in most faiths? Intollerence??

Aren't eastenders running the same storyline now??

Shall we run all catholics, muslims, christians etc out of the country??

All parties have people of faith, as all parties have homosexuals in them, so are people saying anyone of faith should not run as an MP?

Isn't that then forcing certain groups like muslims out of the political arena?

She's the same ilk who go to poor 3rd world countries like Guatemala. and tell illiterate women that birth control pills will make them sterile.

Evangelical Missionaries from America too.

I feel the urge to cross the road when I meet her sort.

from a New Statesman interview with Nadine Dorries:

"But the vast majority of the new MPs will be social Conservatives who have similar opinions to myself," Nadine Dorries tells the New Statesman. ?I can think of half a dozen Conservatives that don't agree with me, but they're leaving at the next election - people like Andrew MacKay and David Curry. The new MPs that are coming in are all social Conservatives - people like Fiona Bruce, Philippa Stroud, Louise Bagshawe."

Absolutely disgusting, hidious, human being[if she can be even called a human] and more ashamedly, she isn't the only one one. Just absolutely horrified and lost for more words.

Gays need to be cured IMHO. Cured so that they can end up marrying the opposite sex, then living happily ever after in a two-up two-down in a conservative constituency with the vast wealth generated by their married couple's tax break.

No, seriously, what they do in their own homes is their business, I just don't want them ramming it down my throat...

No, really, I believe in equality for homosexuals. Just not if they are schoolteachers, as we know that gays are probably paedophiles, for some reason...

No, seriously... Ah fuck it, I'm not really a tory. Can't hide my true colours. Damn me to hell for not being a bigot.

Which reminds me, referring to someone as a bigot, just the once, privately (well, GB thought it was privately), certainly ain't the same as writing a whole book about how a group of people's lifestyle is immoral. Hardly a fair comparison.

It looks like she does a lot of good in the community.

But we have the prime minister calling little old ladies bigots for being concerned about our community, so there are black marks all round.

How vile.

That's appalling.

I don't understand why it's only just coming out now, though. She wrote a book featuring those sorts of comments (although her very worst ones don't seem to have been in it, it's still pretty damning) and the press has only just found it? Better late than never, I suppose.

What I find strange was that there was this huge hoo-ha about the Conservatives' lovely new candidates when Dave became leader, and yet they're such a motley crew that they make the beaming Tory squire types seem positive cuddly. Zac Goldsmith with all his money abroad? The Rees-Moggs? That awful woman in Westminster that someone linked to a couple of weeks back? Couldn't they do any better?

Blergh.