Today in The Irish Independent John Carr of the Irish National Teachers Organisation (INTO) attacks religious freedom in calling for the repeal of Section 37(1) of the Employment Equality Act which allows religious organisations to act against employees who flout their ethos.

An organisation cannot have an ethos unless its employees respect it. For example, if the teachers in a school spent their time preaching atheism, or were known for their membership of the local atheist society, that school's ethos would be in ribbons in no time. Carr must know this but doesn't care because he doesn't really believe in religious freedom. For him, personal autonomy is king.

Incidentally, he made this comment in the context of a survey of primary school kids which confirms that boys like to insult other boys by calling them 'girls' or 'gay'. Bullying of all kinds needs to be actively stamped out, but Carr wants to stamp out religious freedom as well.

Meanwhile in her column in the Indo Meabh Ruane attacks the Pope for criticising British equality laws. She suggests he is pitting a Catholic State (the Vatican) against a Protestant State. No, he's not. All of the major Churches in Britain, plus the Jews, plus the Muslims, have been up in arms about the UK's proposed Equality Bill which was intent on rescinding Britain's equivalent of Section 37(1).

Fortunately they won this round thanks to the House of Lords, a rare enough victory in the present anti-religious climate.