To think this couple's attitude has no place in modern society?

[Georama]

www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-10419543/Christian-couple-ban-gay-man-partner-buying-dream-650-000-sexuality.html

A church-going wife who banned a gay man and his ITV producer partner from buying her £650,000 Surrey home has hit back in the row and insisted they are just sticking to their beliefs.

Luke Whitehouse and Lachlan Mantell were stunned when they were told that they could not buy the three-bedroom home because the Christian owners didn't want to sell to 'two men in a partnership.'

Honestly, they should be ashamed of that text. I hope no estate agent will work with them ever again.

The thing is, most religions advocate against same-sex relations, & therefore there are many many religious people who will not put aside their practices & beliefs to entertainment homosexuality, however it presents itself to them. I personally am an atheist, & I have no problem with it, two of my closest friends are gay (& happily married.) But it’s not that uncommon to find this attitude within religious communities & people are entitled to their beliefs, even if those beliefs may seem offensive to the sensibilities of a modern “woke” society.

They may have caused offence & outrage but they didn’t do any harm to the couple & therefore they can’t be accused of anything other than religious zealotry, which is exactly what they are; religious zealots who hold the word of the Bible in truth - & expect it to also be upheld in practice.

‘ When the sellers said they couldn't do viewing on Sundays as it is 'the Lord's day', it was a pretty big clue they might not be open to these particular sellers.’

1. There are plenty of Christians and people of other faiths who might not want to deal with viewings on a day they considered special to their faith - the Sabbath etc but doesn’t mean their also homophobic bigots
2. Most people don’t police who they sell their house to for morals, religion, sexuality or anything else as it is quite literally NONE of their business

This couple are homophobic weirdos.

Another frustrated Christian here. Shame on them. They’re not homophobes for religious reasons - they’re just homophobes after an excuse. Urgh. LGBT+ community welcome in my church. And house if I were selling, but I’m not.

@Thirtytimesround

Obviously the homophobia is upsetting.

But crying on the phone to his mum, then selling the story to the Daily Mail, including photos of the house owner?! What. A. Whiner.

Have you ever been the victim of homophobia?

Truly abhorrent!

The article even says “ Her husband added: 'We're not ashamed of what we said in any way'. ” awful. They should be ashamed!

It's utter madness. Their money is as good as anyone else's. Why turn down a sale because they're gay? Who cares about sexuality these days?? Their loss.

It must be a very naice area, 650 grand for a 3 bedroom semi!

Obviously these people are batshit homophobes, but I do feel a bit uncomfortable with how they have somehow found and published photos, especially the close up headshot of the woman, along with loads of personal detail. These people haven't actually committed a crime (or at least have not even arrested or anything yet) and it feels a bit off to me.

@DoubleYouOhEmAyEn

As usual Artichoke you've articulate a thought that was only half formed in my head. Whilst i completely abhor the views of this couple I think we need to be able to tolerate people with opinions that are different from our own. These people haven't killed anyone, they've acted in line with their own beliefs in a way that is not criminal. It's shit but there it is. Some people have views that other people find abhorrent. Reacting in the same manner just perpetuates polarisation.

So where would you draw the line? A misogynist could find plenty of texts in the bible to support his view that women were unclean, evil and inferior to men. Would it be ok for him to go round telling women they were these things, backed up by bible quotes? Should we be tolerant because they are just different beliefs from ours?

I’m confused about what the sellers are trying to achieve. Do they think they’re going to become straight because they won’t sell them a house?

@Artichokeleaves

Well obviously they do have a place in modern society, they're living in it and it's ridiculous to pretend that society doesn't include people with these beliefs. It does. Those beliefs don't get changed by tutting and reporting to the police for wrong think, that just makes the divide of belief harder and them angrier. Having beliefs you may not agree with is not a crime.

If you discover that your seller is prejudiced and has incompatible views and doesn't want to sell to you - you shrug and go buy from someone else, because life is too short. You might think your seller is an unpleasant twit: that's not against the law. This whole punish and silence the wrongthinkers and be prejudiced against them really doesn't help anyone or solve anything. It's just prejudice in a different form.

I'm LGBT btw.

While I do agree with you to an extent, the homophobes were essentially 'punishing' the couple, so I think the same should apply to them.

I know at least one gay Christian, btw, it's not automatic that it requires homophobia to be one!

The bible is full of batshit crazy ‘rules’ cutting off hands, stoning non-virgins, what you can and can’t do to your slaves.
They’re nuts.

@CaveWoman1

The thing is, most religions advocate against same-sex relations, & therefore there are many many religious people who will not put aside their practices & beliefs to entertainment homosexuality, however it presents itself to them. I personally am an atheist, & I have no problem with it, two of my closest friends are gay (& happily married.) But it’s not that uncommon to find this attitude within religious communities & people are entitled to their beliefs, even if those beliefs may seem offensive to the sensibilities of a modern “woke” society.

They may have caused offence & outrage but they didn’t do any harm to the couple & therefore they can’t be accused of anything other than religious zealotry, which is exactly what they are; religious zealots who hold the word of the Bible in truth - & expect it to also be upheld in practice.

They stopped them viewing a house they may have bought in a buyers market and sent them texts with passages about shameful lists and gay people getting punished. I'd say that caused harm.

Religious discrimination is still discrimination.

@Thirtytimesround

Obviously the homophobia is upsetting.

But crying on the phone to his mum, then selling the story to the Daily Mail, including photos of the house owner?! What. A. Whiner.

I don't agree with this. Being discriminated against on the basis of sexuality is pretty upsetting. I'm pretty sure MIL cried when she came here from Ireland and was confronted by "no blacks, no Irish" signs while trying to find a home with her two small children. I dislike the current trend of deriding people for showing negative feelings or accepting emotional support.

Going to the Daily Mail, well, that's morally debatable. I wouldn't personally deal with that shitrag however much you paid me, but I don't think using the press to shed sunlight on this sort of antediluvian bigotry is inherently wrong.

@Artichokeleaves

Well obviously they do have a place in modern society, they're living in it and it's ridiculous to pretend that society doesn't include people with these beliefs. It does. Those beliefs don't get changed by tutting and reporting to the police for wrong think, that just makes the divide of belief harder and them angrier. Having beliefs you may not agree with is not a crime.

If you discover that your seller is prejudiced and has incompatible views and doesn't want to sell to you - you shrug and go buy from someone else, because life is too short. You might think your seller is an unpleasant twit: that's not against the law. This whole punish and silence the wrongthinkers and be prejudiced against them really doesn't help anyone or solve anything. It's just prejudice in a different form.

I'm LGBT btw.

Calling out homophobes doesn’t make someone prejudiced.

@Artichokeleaves

Well obviously they do have a place in modern society, they're living in it and it's ridiculous to pretend that society doesn't include people with these beliefs. It does. Those beliefs don't get changed by tutting and reporting to the police for wrong think, that just makes the divide of belief harder and them angrier. Having beliefs you may not agree with is not a crime.

If you discover that your seller is prejudiced and has incompatible views and doesn't want to sell to you - you shrug and go buy from someone else, because life is too short. You might think your seller is an unpleasant twit: that's not against the law. This whole punish and silence the wrongthinkers and be prejudiced against them really doesn't help anyone or solve anything. It's just prejudice in a different form.

I'm LGBT btw.

Yep.

It's difficult for some people to keep up with what is acceptable in "modern society". What is deemed acceptable changes all the time. People should be allowed to have their own opinion and not have to change it according to what is deemed modern, as long as it doesn't hurt others. A generation or so ago people would probably have been just as outraged with these sellers, if they had actually
sold to the gay couple.
I wonder what things we think are modern and morally right in 2022 that will be considered very wrong by the next generation?

5128 that would be abusive, and clearly not acceptable. I was suggesting that publicly denouncing people for holding views that are are differnt to your own is a slippery slope.

Didn’t a bakery win the right not to make a cake for a gay couple? So I’m going to guess however much it may suck that they haven’t even been allowed to view the house the couple are perfectly within their rights to decide who can enter their home and untill it’s sold it’s their home.

Yet again though going to the press is an over reaction they wanted a viewing for told no. Move on next house.

@Omicrone

It must be a very naice area, 650 grand for a 3 bedroom semi!

Obviously these people are batshit homophobes, but I do feel a bit uncomfortable with how they have somehow found and published photos, especially the close up headshot of the woman, along with loads of personal detail. These people haven't actually committed a crime (or at least have not even arrested or anything yet) and it feels a bit off to me.

Nah, fuck them. They’re cunts.

Just as there’s nothing illegal about refusing to sell your house to a gay couple, there’s no law against splashing their photos, names, addresses and pictures of their cunt’s nest across the internet.

Christian here and to me that is not what Christianity is about. It’s about love, inclusion, acceptance and living in harmony. It’s none of mine or anyone else’s business who two consenting adults live with.

@Horst

Didn’t a bakery win the right not to make a cake for a gay couple? So I’m going to guess however much it may suck that they haven’t even been allowed to view the house the couple are perfectly within their rights to decide who can enter their home and untill it’s sold it’s their home.

Yet again though going to the press is an over reaction they wanted a viewing for told no. Move on next house.

I don't think they refused to make a cake. I think they just refused to write a slogan they disagreed with on the cake. I think that's fair enough.

This utterly disgusted me when I saw this.

Nah, fuck them. They’re cunts.

Just as there’s nothing illegal about refusing to sell your house to a gay couple, there’s no law against splashing their photos, names, addresses and pictures of their cunt’s nest across the internet.

We don't even know for sure that the wife was involved. It was the husband messaging the blokes, and then when he was contacted by the Mail he said 'I'll have to speak to my wife'. And now a full on close up photo and personal details including her employment history is in a national newspaper.

I totally disagree with these people of course, i don't understand what they think would happen if a gay couple bought their house, but they weren't being violent against that couple, or publicly inciting hatred, it was a private message stating their position.

@Elsiebear90

It’s awful, I’m gay and I wouldn’t want to buy the house off them any more knowing that. Surely no estate agent is going to represent them when they’ve made it clear they refuse to sell to gay people? I know you don’t have sell your house to anyone who offers, but is refusing purely based on a protected characteristic even legal?

Religion/belief is also a protected characteristic. I'm sure it is the only defence in a sexual orientation discrimination case sadly, although normally it would be in an religious-based employment/organised religion context. Not sure where they would stand here but I'm sure some solicitors will be scouting them about now!

I could understand not wanting to sell your house to a drug dealer or something..but this is insane. Should it matter who buys your house? Dickheads.