segment of the human race. Surely that is what the Christians who are proposing to march on Parliament Hill have to remember. Hate in the name of Christ is still hate.

The march on the House of Assembly is being organised by local pastors and various "ministries'' in an attempt to stop passage of the law which makes male homosexual acts in Bermuda legal.

The real question is whether or not there is a right to pry in people's bedrooms. If the church members who are marching preach that there is such a right, then surely they should not be hypocritical. To avoid hypocrisy they would have to move to extend bedroom prying and illegality to cover adultery and abolish divorce.

The churches do not do that because it would destroy their congregations. They also do not do that because they choose to avoid confrontation and leave the regulation of adultery and fornication and divorce to secular law.

Thankfully Bermuda is governed by secular law and not by the ancient and obscure details of the Bible. If we were governed by the strict teachings of the Bible, as these ministries want gays to be governed, then our daily lives would be much more restricted in terms of everything from sexual behaviour to diet. People in general would not accept that intrusion of the churches in their lives yet the churches want to inflict their strict views on homosexuality on this Country.

Being governed by secular laws ensures government by all the people. That is the essence of democracy. Being governed by strict biblical law would mean government by a minority of Christians who still believe in the literal interpretation of the Bible. It would seem unwise to be dictated to by any determined minority, be it Christian or anything else. That is what leads a Country to dictatorship.

Persecution is persecution, no matter to whom it is applied. Hate is hate, no matter at whom it is directed. To use Christian scripture to continue the persecution of gays surely indicates a willingness to engage in persecution.

Those Christians who would persecute gays are surely indicating that they would persecute non-Christians. Christ preached love not hate. Yet those of his followers who are innately homophobic or willing to preach to people's baser instincts, use the Christian bible to justify hate. Hate is hate no matter how it is clothed and if it is encouraged it has a destructive way of spreading.

We think that members of both houses of Parliament and the public should consider that before they allow themselves to be led or to be influenced in their thinking by the marchers.