It has not been a good week to claim connections to New Zealand - and I am not even talking about rugby league!

I will start by talking about the Four Nations tour. For the first time in my life, I was pleased to see Australia beating the Kiwis. Serves them right for the way the manager and accompanying reporter, anyway, acted like spoiled children in Workington.

It appears little old Scotland managed to hold them to a draw not because Scotland played well and the Kiwis didn’t but because the facilities at Workington were not up to scratch. Oh, and of course, it was raining and cold. Can I just remind you that, after Australia, closest land mass to New Zealand is Antarctica. We know cold! We know rain!

Anyway, their petty behaviour was not the worst thing to come out of New Zealand over the past couple of weeks.

The frightening news was the earthquake that hit the small town of Kaikoura. Until now, Kaikoura was famous only as one of the best places in the country to go whale watching and for its cheese.

Now homes and infrastructure have been destroyed, people were sleeping under tables and depending on lawnmowers for fuel.

And whose fault was it? According to a bishop of some fringe church it is down to gay people. Yes, homosexuality has caused an earthquake.

If you think about it, being gay appears to give people some kind of evil superpower because nutters through the ages have been blaming them for everything from the Aids virus on - and usually by so-called Christians.

What I don’t understand is how the spewers of such ridiculous vitriol can stand it up against the Christian message.

This time next week we will be in the season of Advent, preparing for Christmas. That’s Christmas - the celebration of the belief that God loved the world so much that he sent his only son to live among us, experience what we experience in all our human frailty, and, finally, to be crucified on our behalf.

So, if that is the God these extremists know - the God of the New Testament - how can they believe he is going to destroy innocent lives because someone has fallen in love with someone of the same gender?

We are all entitled to our beliefs, of course, but none of the major religions teach hate, although there are those in all religions who thrive on it.

But, by the way, when I say we are entitled to our beliefs, those beliefs have to be safeguarded by law in a democratic country.

That is why I am on the side of the bakers who refused, on religious grounds, to bake a cake with a pro-gay message on it. They were convicted by the courts.

That, without knowing all the facts, seems plain stupid. Apparently they had baked cakes before for this same gay couple but just refused to put the message on the cake this time.

This wasn’t a hate crime. They were not abusing, insulting or extreme in their actions as far as I know. They owned a business and simply said they did not want to do business on this occasion.

They didn’t have a sign on their door that said “Heterosexuals only” - which would have been offensive.

In the same way, B&B owners with firm beliefs should be able to gently offer gay couples, or unmarried couples for that matter, single rooms rather than doubles.

Christian air hostesses should be able to wear crosses and Muslim women hijab or burkas, just as Jewish men can wear the kippah and Sikhs their turbans. That is called freedom of religion.

Inciting hate and encouraging others to hate is not a freedom. It is a crime. Blaming a section of the community for the ability to start earthquakes is just plain nonsense.

Christmas is coming. Peace and goodwill to all!