October 9, 2008 – The beaver is a proud and noble animal

Homosexuals should carry warning tattoos, says chaplain

A Church of England clergyman has said that homosexuals should be tattooed with health warnings similar to those seen on cigarette packets.

The Rev Dr Peter Mullen, who is rector of St Michael’s Cornhill and St Sepulchre without Newgate in the City, said in an internet blog that homosexuality was “clearly unnatural, a perversion and corruption of natural instincts and affections, and because it is a cause of fatal disease”.

He wrote: “Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH and their chins with FELLATIO KILLS.”

In the same blog, Mr Mullen called for all gay pride parades, which he branded “obscene”, to be outlawed. He also criticised the blessing of two gay priests at a “wedding” performed earlier this year in a City of London church.

The Bishop of London, the Rt Rev Richard Chartres, said the posting, which has since been taken down, was “highly offensive”. The Rev Mullen, 66, was told on Friday that he could face disciplinary action.

The rector, who has written for The Daily Telegraph, insisted that he meant no harm: “I wrote some satirical things on my blog and anybody with an ounce of sense of humour or any understanding of the tradition of English satire would immediately assume that they’re light-hearted jokes.”