Sun. November 12, 2006
London, UK -
Pop music legend Sir Elton John says that religion should be banned completely because he believes it promotes hatred of gays.
Organized religion fuels anti-gay discrimination and other forms of bias, John said in an interview published Saturday, reports the Associated Press.
"I think religion has always tried to turn hatred towards gay people," John said in the Observer newspaper's Music Monthly Magazine. "Religion promotes the hatred and spite against gays."
"But there are so many people I know who are gay and love their religion," he told Music Monthly. "From my point of view, I would ban religion completely. Organized religion doesn't seem to work. It turns people into really hateful lemmings and it's not really compassionate."
Religious leaders have also failed to do anything about tensions and conflicts around the world, John said, reports Music Monthly. "Why aren't they having a conclave? Why aren't they coming together?"
John told Music Monthly that those in his own field have been similarly lax.
"It's like the peace movement in the '60s. Musicians got through to people by getting out there and doing peace concerts, but we don't seem to do them any more," Music Monthly quotes John saying. "If John Lennon were alive today, he'd be leading it with a vengeance."
In the interview, John pledged to continue to campaign for gay rights saying: "I'm going to fight for them whether I do it silently behind the scenes or so vocally that I get locked up. I can't just sit back; it's not in my nature any more. I'm nearly 60-years-old after all. I can't sit back and blindly ignore it and I won't."
Written By Troy Espera
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