Trump’s after-dinner speech at Buckingham Palace sticks in the throat (East London Humanists opinion piece, Barking and Dagenham Post 13.6.19)<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
According\nto the BBC, Trump\u2019s Buckingham Palace speech contained nothing controversial.\nNot so.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
True,\nhe didn\u2019t insult anyone. He didn\u2019t use the occasion to dismiss overwhelming\nevidence on climate change as a hoax. He didn\u2019t talk about those seeking\nsanctuary from persecution and poverty as if they are low-life criminals. And\nthe occasion wasn\u2019t used to sow division or make derogatory remarks about\nwomen, Muslims, disabled people or gays. Perhaps the Queen\u2019s presence deterred\nthe usual display of bigotry, nationalistic self-interest and scorn for science\nand truth Trump represents. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
However many will take exception to Trump\u2019s nod to the folks back home when he talked of \u2018reverence for the rights given to us by almighty God.\u2019<\/em> Odd from a man who has lived a life so far removed from any religious virtue. But his cynical claim to piety has won the support of extreme Christian fundamentalists, joyful at the prospect of turning the clock back on women\u2019s dominion over their own bodies. Or perhaps Trump had in mind a divine right to rule, or to pillage the environment? The rights we enjoy were not given by \u2018almighty God.\u2019 There is no equivalent of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or the US constitution, in any of the holy books. They are man (and woman) made creations. Our civil liberties have been hard fought for over many centuries, not gifted from on high. We must resist Trump\u2019s dangerous bombast and religious dogma that seek to reverse human progress. <\/p>\n\n\n\n Paul Kaufman Trump’s after-dinner speech at Buckingham Palace sticks in the throat (East London Humanists opinion piece, Barking and Dagenham Post 13.6.19)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"spay_email":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_is_tweetstorm":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9c4oP-vD","jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1961"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1962,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1961\/revisions\/1962"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1961"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1961"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/eastlondon.humanist.org.uk\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1961"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Chair East London Humanists
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"