Equal Opportunity

Thought you'd heard it all, did you?

Nope. Not even close:

LONDON (Reuters) - Britain's Armed Forces have enlisted their first Satanist after a naval technician serving on a frigate was granted permission to practice his beliefs while at sea, the Ministry of Defence says.

Defending the decision to allow a Satanist among the Royal Navy's ranks, a ministry spokesman said on Sunday it was an "equal opportunities employer" and did not discriminate against specific religious beliefs.

The Sunday Telegraph newspaper said Chris Cranmer, 24, from Edinburgh would be allowed to have a funeral carried out by the Church of Satan should he be killed in action.

What a relief!

The Church of Satan was founded in the 1960s, but Satanism can refer to a diverse set of practices that include viewing Satan as a force of nature.

Members of the church, which rejects Christian ideas of God and the Devil, follow 11 Satanic Rules of the Earth.

So in other words, it's a cult somebody made up recently, and to give these people the time of day is another breach in the edifice of civilization as we know it. But this is to be expected; they already recognize the "Jedi Knight" as a "religion", never mind its fictional origins.

"I am utterly shocked by this," said Conservative parliamentarian Anne Widdecombe.

"Satanism is wrong. Obviously the private beliefs of individuals anywhere including the armed forces are their own affair but I hope it doesn't spread," she said.

Well, guess what, it's going to spread and it's going to get worse because defending our culture is equated with bigotry with "discrimination" -- meaning, according to the dictionary, "The ability or power to see or make fine distinctions; discernment" -- is now the greatest sin.

"Tolerance" has come to mean nothing less than acceptance and accomodation, even celebration.

The Royal Navy may one day find its true purpose -- defeating those who would harm Britain -- has been forgotten, and that it has been spending its precious time and resources in being an "equal opportunity" employer and a vehicle for experiments in social engineering, when rather it should have been relentlessly honing its warfighting skills.

Makes one nostalgic for the old Royal Navy traditions of "rum, sodomy, and the lash."

Indeed, this frivolity makes me nostalgic for the Puritans...and I'm a Catholic!