When does "core belief" mean prejudice?

Answer: when it comes out of a Tory MP's mouth. This morning on Sky News, a Tory MP (I don't recall his name, though it doesn't matter; he represents the views of a cadre of right wingers who will vote against gay marriage this Tuesday) was asked why his views could not be interpreted as "prejudice". His reply was that it wasn't prejudice; it was a "core belief". OK then, so that makes it OK to discriminate against a minority. Let's say I had a core belief that it was OK to put Jews in gas chambers, or that slavery is OK. The former was a deeply held "core belief" of the Nazis and the latter was a core belief of almost everyone prior to the 19th century (except, I imagine, for the people enslaved).

To summarise, a core belief isn't right just because you hold it dear to your heart. It doesn't say it's cool for same sex couples to marry in the Bible; there are even some passages disapproving of same sex unions of any kind. It also doesn't say anything about the Jews being entitled to usurp other people's homelands for their own purposes and then treat those peoples as 2nd class citizens, but the Israelis have interpreted the Bible to mean just that. Apparently. However, the rest of us think that things have moved on a little in the 3000-odd years since parts of it were written, and that we should not be bound by the tenets contained therein to work out how to live in this infinitely more complex and confusing world we now inhabit.

So, let's try to use the brains and free will God allegedly gave us to work out what is cool and what is uncool for ourselves.