Of Course, I Could Be Wrong...: 2013-02-03

Saturday, 9 February 2013

WORSHIP AT SAINT LAIKA'S

A SERVICE OF HOLY COMMUNION

THE LAST SUNDAY AFTER THE EPIPHANY

THE SUNDAY NEXT BEFORE LENT

TRANSFIGURATION SUNDAY

The order of service is posted beneath the audio file so that you can join in with the service. The words in bold type are the ones we say together.

If you want to physically partake of communion you will require a small piece of bread and a small amount of drink (preferably made from grapes and containing alcohol). How you view the nature of this part of the service is completely up to you.

The order of service is posted beneath the audio file so that you can join in with the service. The words in bold type are the ones we say together.

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MP3 File

CLICK HERE for order of service and credits
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THE COLLECTION

I need those of you who enjoy my ministry and/or support the evangelistic elements of it, and who do not contribute to my ministry already, to consider sending a regular donation in to me which I will spend firstly on the costs of the ministry itself and secondly on food and stuff.

You do not need to have a PayPal account to subscribe or donate via the buttons below. If you want to make a regular monthly donation (which I really would appreciate) click on the up and down arrows beside the options on the first widget, choose an amount you would like to send and then follow instructions. If you want to send a one off gift please use the second widget.

Friday, 8 February 2013

HELP ME IF YOU CAN

I really don't like having to do this but needs must.

I survive on the donations I receive from those people who support my ministry on the internet. This amounts to about £400 ($630) per month. It's not much but I get by. That is I do unless something unexpected comes along. Take last Friday for example. I was driving my car out of my estate when suddenly it stalled. At first I blamed my driving but, unfortunately, it was more serious than that. The car was knackered. Fortunately, it turned out to only need the coil replacing and I got away with a relatively small bill of just £130 ($204). However, having paid that out in the middle of this week I am now completely without funds for the weekend, for those little luxuries in life such as food.

Therefore, as I do every time something like this happens, I am asking those of you who do not regularly donate to my ministry to consider helping me out by either becoming a regular giver or making a one-off donation.

You do not need to have a PayPal account to subscribe or donate via the buttons below. If you want to make a regular monthly donation (which I really would appreciate) click on the up and down arrows beside the options on the first widget, choose an amount you would like to send and then follow instructions. If you want to send a one off gift please use the second widget.

SPAM OF THE DAY

Treasured for their practicality?!
Just like Mrs MP so I think I'll stick with her.
Better the devil you know and all that.

BETTER HOME A-WAITIN'

It's been a sad week for me as far as musicians dying is concerned. Firstly, Cecil Womack died. Now, my favourite soul album of all time is "Love Wars" by Womack And Womack. In fact, only a week or so ago I was feeling incredibly old after I realised that the record is thirty years old now. And, yes, it does seem like only yesterday that I was getting on down at a Womack And Womack gig in London put on to promote the album. Then, today, I read on the soul grapevine (the relatives have kept it quiet for some reason) that the great, jazz trumpeter, Donald Byrd, died a week ago. If Donald Byrd didn't invent jazz funk he certainly popularised it and I was one huge jazz funk fan in my youth. So, sadness abounds.

I've cobbled together a musical tribute to the two great men in which I have also included songs by four other black musicians from the golden age of black music who have died in the last month - Liz Lands, Sam Pace from The Esquires, Lou Wilson from Mandrill and Leroy "Sugarfoot" Bonner from The Ohio Players.

Love Wars - Womack And Womack
Thank You For Funking Up My Life - Donald Byrd
Get On Up - Esquires
T.K.O. - Womack And Womack
Hush - Donald Byrd
One Man's Poison - Liz Lands
Sweeter Than The Day Before - Valentinos (The Womack Brothers)
It's Too Late - Mandrill
Skin Tight - Ohio Players
(Fallin' Like) Dominoes (Live) - Donald Byrd
Teardrops - Womack and Womack

The other great loss this month was Reg Presley from The Troggs. I will be putting together a special tribute to the crazy crop-circle chaser over the weekend.

GAY APPAREL

JABBA THE MOSQUE

From THE TELEGRAPH:

Lego has been accused of racism by the Turkish community in Austria over a Star Wars model that supposedly resembles the Hagia Sophia Basilica (now a museum) in Istanbul and that the accompanying figures depicted Asians and Orientals as people with “deceitful and criminal personalities.” The anger was provoked by “Jabba’s Palace”, a model of the home of Jabba the Hutt from Lego’s Star Wars product range. Jabba’s domed home and accompanying watchtower bear, according to the statement, an unwanted resemblance to Istanbul’s great Hagia Sophia, and a mosque in Beirut.

Austria’s Turkish community also took issue with the figures that went with the palace, including Jabba. “The terrorist Jabba the Hutt likes to smoke a hookah and have his victims killed,” said the statement posted on the organisation’s website. The crimes associated with the figures, the statements adds, include terrorism, slavery, murder and human sacrifice.

Well, the human sacrifice thing is a bit rich. I can see how they might be offended about that.

It's an interesting fact that what the world regards as typical Islamic architecture is in fact from the early Christian period in the East. When the Arab tribes conquered the Christian and Jewish lands and settlements they wanted to show how powerful their god was by building mosques all over the place. They hired the best architects around who were all Christian. So mosques turned out to look like Christian churches. So, if anybody should be cross with LEGO it should be us Christians. And Cardinal Timothy Dolan should be most pissed off of all.

I'M IN CHARGE NOW!

From AGENCE-FRANCE-PRESSE:

Twitter newcomer Pope Benedict XVI has complained that popular social media users and smooth talkers are creating a din and stealing attention from those trying to address key social and faith issues.

"The culture of social networks... pose demanding challenges to those who want to speak about truth and values," Benedict said in a speech to mark World Social Media day, in which he complained of the "din of excessive information" online.

"Popularity is often linked to celebrity or to strategies of persuasion rather than to the logic of argumentation," said Benedict, who already has over a million followers on Twitter.

Ain't that just typical of the old boy. He's only been on the internet a few weeks and already he's telling everybody else what to do. But he's right about one thing - you can write utter drivel, even write it in Latin, and if you're famous people will still read it.

NO SEX PLEASE WE'VE BECOME ITALIAN

From THE DAILY MAIL:

A father-of-three who has been married to his wife for 33 years has made a decision rather late in life to take a vow of celibacy and become a Catholic priest. John Cornelius, 64, will be ordained in Wellsville, Allegany County, New York, tomorrow leaving behind his former faith and any hope of a sex life. Cornelius, who was previously an Episcopal priest for 20 years,found his new role with the support of his three daughters and most importantly his wife, Sharyl. Cornelius and his wife became Catholics after he left his former church two years ago, unhappy with its direction. But he was unable to make the move to priesthood until Pope Benedict XVI issued an order saying married former priests could be ordained a year ago.

"When they did that, I just jumped," said Cornelius. "I needed someplace where there was order. I've been a Baptist, Presbyterian, Methodist...messed around with Bahá'í, Harikrishna... I was almost an Anarchist in college... so it's been a search, and it's really been a search for order."

The couple weren't forced to make the decision to opt for celibacy but put themselves forward anyway.

"We don't have to take that particular vow," explained Cornelius. "We have decided to do that voluntarily."

To be honest, and I know this will sound a little cruel, but I wouldn't be at all surprised to find out it was Mrs Cornelius' idea originally.

BLOODY ART

From SAINT LOUIS POST-DISPATCH:

Blood is artist Jordan Eagles’ chosen medium, and through it he strives to express both the energy and the spiritual symbolism of blood, of the flame and its meanings. He started using animal blood when he found it more effective than red paint in a project. But preserving the blood presented challenges.

“Over a year, the pieces turned from red to brown,” he said. “How can I prevent organic material from changing colors? Preservation raised more philosophical questions. In many cultures, people believe that the body and soul are connected. If you preserve the body, are you also preserving the spirit?”

He gets the blood from a slaughterhouse, mixing it with resin in his studio. Both substances, he says, are highly temperamental.

“Blood, unlike most other mediums, has to be preserved right away. You can’t start a piece and decide, ‘I’ll get back to it in a couple of weeks.’ I will actually mix the two up; blood interacting with resin. The challenges are what makes it so exciting. My practice is almost an alchemy of sorts, trying to make magic happen.”

“Blood/Spirit,” an exhibit of Eagles’ work, is on display at St. Louis University’s Museum of Contemporary Religious Art.

Well, I like it.

HELP ME IF YOU CAN

A FAKE MARTYRDOM

From ABC NEWS:

The Vatican's head of doctrine says critics in North America and Europe are conducting a "concerted campaign" to discredit the Catholic Church that is resulting in open attacks against priests. In an interview published Saturday by Germany newspaper Die Welt, Archbishop Gerhard Ludwig Mueller, leader of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, likened the sentiment directed toward the Church to that of the pogroms against Jews in Europe.

Well, I don't agree with his conclusions but at least, for once, the Roman Catholic hierarchy know what they are talking about on this one. I mean German Catholics were main players in the rise of Nazism in Europe, the Vatican pretty much turned its back on the victims of the Holocaust and allowed Italian jews to be sent by train up to Germany to die, and, without doubt, have been the cause of more pain to the Jewish communities of Europe over the centuries up to the Second World War than all other anti-semitic agencies put together.

Someone should tell the talking heads of the Vatican that no matter how many times they try to liken themselves to the Jews killed in the Holocaust they are not the oppressed. They are well and truly in with the oppressors and, as such, are no better than all the post war Israeli governments. Isn't life strange?

BLACK CHRIST MOTORCYCLE CLUB

From AGENCE-FRANCE-PRESSE:

Some 35,000 motorcyclists roared through the streets of Guatemala City Saturday for an annual pilgrimage to the Cristo Negro -- the shrine of the Black Christ -- one of this country's most venerated icons. The riders, many toting wives or children on their backs, will cover 195 kilometers (120 miles) from the center of the capital Guatemala City, to the town of Esquipulas, home to the basilica of the same name where the icon is housed.

SUGAR AND SPICE AND EVERYTHING NICE

From ABC NEWS:

Female students at the Queen of Peace High School in North Arlington, N.J., stood up during homeroom Friday, raised their right hands, and recited a pledge in unison.

"I do solemnly promise not to use profanities of any kind within the walls and properties of Queen of Peace High School. In other words, I swear not to swear. So help me God," they said.

Meanwhile, boys at the school were free to use whatever language they wanted.

The co-ed Catholic high school started a civility campaign in concurrence with National Catholic Schools Week to try "to go back to some old fashion values."

QUOTE OF THE DAY

My prayer plant is not praying. According to the label, this plant takes its name from the fact that it folds and lifts its oblong leaves in changing light as if in worship. I was charmed by the idea and that it’s supposed to be easy to care for. So far there’s no sign of folding, lifting or praying, and I’m beginning to suspect that my plant may be an atheist. (Dorothy Wilhelm - THE NEWS TRIBUNE)

EIGHTY NOT OUT

From THE FAIRFIELD CITIZEN:

John and Ann Betar weren't supposed to get married. Her father had arranged for her to wed another man, but she and John fled Bridgeport and eloped in New York.

That was more than 80 years ago. The couple is still happily hitched, a fact that has led to their naming as the "longest married couple" in the U.S.

They told the New York Daily News that there are no secrets to a long marriage, only a few simple rules.

"We just live with contentment and we don't live beyond our means," John Betar said. "Just go with the flow."

John's now 101 years old and Ann is 97.

I'm not going to show Mrs MP this post. Just the thought of another 55 years with me could be enough to drive her over the edge.

HOGWASH OF THE DAY

Not only hogwash but damn offensive to those who campaigned for black emancipation, and even more so to the memory of those who died in the struggle.

From THE NATIONAL CATHOLIC REPORTER:

Vocal objections by U.S. bishops over a proposed federal mandate requiring coverage of contraceptive services in health care plans are in line with faith leaders' participation in the civil rights movement of the 1960s, writes U.S. bishops' spokesperson, Mercy Sr. Mary Ann Walsh.

SENIOR LADIES GET TO SIT WITH BISHOPS

From THE TELEGRAPH:

Eight senior female clergy are to be elected to join the House of Bishops as “participant observers” until there are women bishops to take their place. Although not formally styled as bishops they will play a full part in deliberations and the House's standing committee. The new status was agreed at a special meeting at Lambeth Palace, the first gathering of the bishops since the new Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby, took up his post.

It's just the same old, old boys' club but with a few women, already favoured by the old boys, being allowed to watch. The whole system stinks. Instead of the eventual election of women to the episcopacy being a breath of fresh air in the Church it's going to just be more stuffy careerists appointed by stuffy careerists who have already got to the top. The only difference is that some of the stuffy careerists will be wearing skirts (in public).

The hatch through which the ladies will
be allowed to "observe" the bishops

EXODUS

From MCCLATCHY:

Two granddaughters of Westboro Baptist Church firebrand Fred Phelps have split with the Topeka-based congregation, indicating their views have evolved and they now regret the pain they have caused others.

Steve Drain, a spokesman for the church, said in an interview Wednesday that the sisters had rejected the Lord.

“We can’t control whether or not somebody decides, when they grow up, that they don’t want to be here,” Drain said. “Those two girls were kind of straddling the idea that they wanted to be of the world but that they would also miss their family, the only thing they ever knew. If they continue with the position that they have, those two girls, yeah, they’re going to hell.”

My guess is that they will meet a much nicer and friendlier type of person in hell than they have been used to in the Phelps family compound.

THE BARD UPDATED

GUNFIGHT AT THE (NOT SO) O.K. CHORAL SERVICE

Following the Arkansas legislature's recent repeal of laws banning guns in church we have received the following video report from our Stateside reporter.

BLOG NOTICE

In the last couple of days OCICBW... crawled passed the two and a half million hits mark. The blog only gets about a third of the visitors it used to in the heyday of blogging. Most of my old friends restrict themselves to Facebook nowadays which is why I post everything I post here, in its entirety on Facebook as well. If you can't beat 'em, join them, as they say.

Anyway, congratulations to me and all that.

Thanks to stalwarts, old and new.

Onwards and downwards.

GO ON MONK, MAKE MY DAY!

From THE DECCAN HERALD:

Mahant Daya Bharti, a woman monk associated with India’s biggest Juna Akhara, always carries a double barrel gun when she is out of her “ashram." She also possesses a valid arms licence. The mahant, who has a permanent “ashram” in Dholpur district in Rajasthan, says that she had been trained in handling the gun by her guru Mahant Digambar Ram Bharti, who is also from Juna Akhara.

“I started receiving arms training when I was barely ten,” she says with pride as she shows her gun.

She also loves luxury cars and owns two swanky SUVs. She said that she had driven all the way from Dholpur to Allahabad herself.

Armed to the teeth, driving fancy cars, absolutely no regard for the basic tenets of her religion - surely there must be a place for this woman in the good, old USA. She'd make a killing - probably in more ways than one.

Thursday, 7 February 2013

NO SAME SEX MARRIAGE UNTIL EVERY MAN AND WOMAN AGREES TO IT, INSISTS ARCHDEACON

From THIS IS KENT:

The Archdeacon of Tonbridge said last night's vote to allow gay marriage shows society is still divided.

The Venerable Clive Mansell said: "It was a very important debate yesterday but it reveals the lack of universal consent across the Commons and indeed across society. A change of this magnitude warrants universal consent and that is lacking at the moment."

Clive Mansell got his job whilst Nazir Ali was in power in Rochester. That was another man who totally didn't get the concept of democracy.

Clive Mansell - Mild mannered, evangelical archdeacon by day,
Count Dracula, Lord of the Undead, by night

PASTOR BRADFIELD DOESN'T GET IT

This post is about a Northern Irish protestant. They will kill people over whether a flag is flying or not. So, please do not expect anything resembling intelligence in the main protagonist's statements and certainly do no expect anything approaching Christian charity.

From THE BELFAST NEWSLETTER:

After reading a passage of the Bible on BBC’s Nolan radio show, Pastor Mark Bradfield of Bethel Baptist Church said: “God doesn’t hate homosexuals, he loves sinners and hates the sin. Whether you’re a homosexual, thief, murderer, liar, devil worshipper, God loves you.“

When questioned as to whether he equated being homosexual to worshipping the devil he said "yes." He said he believes homosexuality is wrong and accused gay people of hating God.

“Having spoken to a number of homosexual activists why is it that these souls that hate God so much that they’re willing to disobey his commandments, why do they want to get married in church?"

“It boggles my mind that there is so much fuss over the desires or the wants of 1.5 or 2 per cent of the population."

And that last sentence says it all. The bloke has absolutely no idea what Jesus Christ was on about. He's just about got his mind around the Old Testament idea of following rules but that is it. Everything after Deuteronomy might as well have not been written as far as this particular spokesman for god is concerned.

Pastor Mark Bradfield consoles himself with a whole load of
barbecued sausages after once again coming last in the annual
Belfast In Bloom Competition

EXCLUSIVISM ABOVE COMPASSION

I don't think, in all the years I've been blogging on the sillinesses and nastinesses of organised religion, that I've ever come across a story as silly and nasty as this. Honestly, every Christian evangelist and missionary in the world should pack up their bags and go home to watch TV for the rest of their lives. I mean, what's the point of bigging up God as our loving creator when men like Matthew Harrison come out with evil nonsense like this that presents God to the world as a mean spirited, bureaucratic psychopath?

From REUTERS:

A Connecticut Lutheran pastor has apologized for participating in an interfaith prayer vigil for the 26 children and adults killed at a Newtown elementary school in December because his church bars its clergy from worshiping with other faiths. The December prayer vigil was attended by President Barack Obama, leaders from Christian, Muslim and Jewish faiths, and relatives of the 20 first graders who were gunned down in their classrooms two days earlier after a gunman entered their school. The pastor, Rob Morris of Newtown's Christ the King Lutheran Church, provided the closing benediction at the interfaith event.

Earlier this month, the president of the Lutheran Church—Missouri Synod, Pastor Matthew Harrison, wrote a letter to church members saying he had requested an apology from Morris for his participation in "joint worship with other religions."

"There is sometimes a real tension between wanting to bear witness to Christ and at the same time avoiding situations which may give the impression that our differences with respect to who God is, who Jesus is, how he deals with us, and how we get to heaven, really don't matter in the end," Harrison wrote.

Harrison said he had accepted Morris' apology.

EXCUSE OF THE DAY

From THE COURIER MAIL:

Former senior Baptist pastor, Steven Chard, from Sydney, says he didn't report a girl's allegations that she had been sexually abused by a church youth worker because he didn't know a 14-year-old was considered a child.

You would think the fact that the girl was in his church's youth group would have been a big enough clue.

TWO QUOTES THAT SAY IT ALL

The first comes from Pope Benedict XVI.

"God manifests himself as Father in creation, inasmuch as He is the origin of life, and in creating, reveals his omnipotence."

In other words, that which is called "Father," the male, the sperm, is the source of life and is all powerful. No wonder women are considered as less than men in the Roman Catholic religion.

The second comes from Rick Santorum.

Speaking on CBS’s “Face the Nation’' on Sunday, Santorum said he was not questioning Obama’s religion, but was talking specifically about “radical environmentalists” who have an ideology “that man is here to serve the earth as opposed to husband its resources and be good stewards of the earth.”

“I wasn’t suggesting the president’s not a Christian. I accept the fact that the president’s a Christian,” Santorum said. He said his only criticism was of a worldview that “elevates the earth above man.”

As long as there are powerful people in the world who still believe that the universe exists to serve "man" we are truly screwed. Ironically, the land which is home to most of these scientifically and theologically inept fools, is suffering more than most from the devastating results of global warming. You would think that their magical thinking would lead them to conclude that their god was angry with them for messing up the earth's atmosphere and get on board the low emissions bandwagon. No such luck because their god only does bad things to people who don't vote the same way that they do so, to them, all these natural disasters must be the fault of someone else. Fortunately their god has given them a black man to blame for everything. The only thing that could beat that for these (male) dominionist chauvinists would be having a black woman to blame.

RECORD SLEEVES WITH CATS ON (2)

Wednesday, 6 February 2013

RECORD SLEEVES WITH DOGS ON (22)

I think the dog's name is "Mister." It looks like him.
But I may be wrong. This could be another dog.

PUNCH UP DURING FIRST COMMUNION

From MALTA TODAY:

Two upstanding families have appeared in court charged with breaking the public peace and fighting in a churchyard when an argument erupted over photographs taken of a young girl. The incident goes back to last June, when the daughter of a separating couple attended her First Holy Communion mass at Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church in Birkirkara. With the two families in dispute, the mother-in-law took it upon herself to take the pictures on the day, but argued that she didn't want the young girl to have her photograph taken with the two families together. Tension was running high before the mass, with the girl's parents exchanging angry text messages between them, while the father alleged that a member of his in-law's family tried to trip him as he walked up the aisle with his daughter who was to receive Holy Communion. The Court heard how kicks and punches were thrown, involving young and elderly family members, some of whom needed medical assistance.

Magistrate Claire Stafrace Zammit told off the disputing families.

"Why are you being so ridiculous so as not to see how your actions are traumatising young children? My experience in this courtroom is that children who are subjected to such bitterness grow up to let out their anger by using drugs, and God forbid, also resorting to suicide," she said.

That magistrate appears to be a eminently sensible woman. I'm sure she'll sort the two families out. I'm certain I wouldn't argue with her.

VATICAN TRIES PLAN B

From GMA NEWS:

Pope Benedict XVI's top official on family policy has opened up to the possibility of legal rights for gay civil unions, although he also stressed that marriage should remain between a man and a woman. The remarks by Monsignor Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the Pontifical Council for the Family, to a Vatican press conference on Monday were quoted in the Italian press on Tuesday.

"Marriage is a clear legal dimension. There are then multiple other types of non-family cohabitation for which solutions should be found in terms of individual law and in my view also in terms of property law. I think this is a terrain that politicians should begin to approach - legal rights for non-traditional families would prevent injustice against the weakest," Paglia said.

The Italian prelate also spoke out against homophobia in parts of the Middle East and Africa, condemning countries where being gay is a crime.

"This should be fought against," he said.

It would appear that the Roman Catholic hierarchy is entering the "bargaining" stage of their bereavement process. That's more than half way to acceptance.

WE DIMS ARE SO NON-U

From THE CHRISTIAN POST: An interfaith atheist activist has claimed that the modern atheist movement in the United States and Europe lacks concern for the poor. Walker Bristol, a blogger for The Huffington Post, wrote an essay posted on Saturday arguing that the "new atheism" of the 21st century has been rightly stereotyped as "elitist" and "self-satisfied."

"The atheist movement, in composition and purpose, has in the last decade failed to demonstrate a meaningful dedication to fighting economic inequality and building a safe space for nontheists regardless of their socioeconomic class. Despite all their talk of building a better world and upholding diversity, contemporary atheism and humanism's most prominent authors and leaders have been suspiciously silent on the topic of poverty." wrote Bristol.

According to Bristol, while some local nontheist groups engage in philanthropy to benefit the poor, far too many atheist organizations solely attack religious communities via "self-righteous billboard campaigns." "While the current movement limits itself to honing arguments and gleefully ridiculing the religious, others who don't share their educational privilege, those in poor communities are often bound by a strong local church. The last decade is peppered with blatant examples of outright classist language and motivation that has directly distanced the atheist movement from peer religious communities." wrote Bristol.

Bristol pointed the finger at several notable atheist public figures, such as Sam Harris and Richard Dawkins, as evidence for his argument regarding 21st century atheism.

Walker Bristol is spot on. The similarity between the philosophy of modern atheists, based as it is on their worship of the Darwinian Bible in which only the strong (the bright) survive, and the elitist philosophies of the late Nineteenth and early Twentieth Century that led to the eugenics movement and ultimately the Holocaust is very frightening. Of course, the survival of the fittest and selfish gene stuff is mostly bunkum. Evolution is far more complicated than that and community welfare is of higher import than muscle or intelligence in social species.

It's also very unlikely that the leaders of self idolising atheism are going to say much about alleviating poverty when they are making so much money from going on about how bad religion is. That is why Dawkins et al are so negative, always going on about what is wrong with religion in their evangelism rather than trumpeting what is good in atheism. The thing is, as long as Dawkins and his apostles are in the driving seat rather than the truly bright (as in actually shining a light on the human condition) atheists such as De Botton and Bristol, there is little that is good for society in atheism. Ultimately it is what is good for the community not what is good for the individual (no matter how clever or strong) that will persist and prosper the species.

However, I must add a caveat to this. Religion today is just as dominated by elitists as the atheist movement is, especially in its mainline manifestations. We cannot be smug when we are still making Eton and Oxbridge alumni leaders of the Church of England when there are far many better qualified for the job who don't get a look in because they are not "of the right sort." And our last ABC, Rowan Williams was the antidawkins - intellectual, poetic, went to all the right schools but of absolutely no use whatsoever if you were hungry or oppressed.

RECORD SLEEVES WITH DOGS ON (21)

Tuesday, 5 February 2013

CREDIT WHERE CREDIT IS DUE

I am a socialist. I despise the Conservative Party's economic policy, especially its failure to make the rich contribute fairly to society and their insistance on giving that which belongs to all of us to a few of their friends to make money out of. To put it bluntly, they are my enemy.

However, sometimes you have to accept that an enemy is, in fact, a far better person than you make him out to be. This will never happen in respect of Margaret Thatcher, of course, because the woman had absolutely no redeeming features. But David Cameron is not Mrs Thatcher, far from it. Unlike Thatcher, he is obviously human as his family life demonstrates. But, more than that, he is a man of integrity and that cannot be disputed even if we believe much of his integrity to be misplaced. In the past he has apologised when an apology was needed and without reservation and I have been greatly impressed by this. Although I think he is going about it completely the wrong way I cannot but say that he is after consensus and peace in our land and does not employ the divide and conquer techniques that so many of his predecessors, both Conservative and Labour, have cynically used to get their own way. Most of all, as his championing of the Marriage Bill today demonstrates, he is prepared to fight some pretty ferocious dragons if he really believes in something.

Yes, he's a politician. Yes, he's a privileged hooray who got where he is today as much because of family connections and influence as any talent of his own. No, I will not be voting for his party no matter how many injustices he consigns to the bin of shame passed. However, tonight I raise my glass to him, which is not for the first time, and thank him for doing something really wonderful for so many people who have waited so long for a prime minister like him to come along. I am proud of my prime minister today and proud to be living in a country where love, at least sometimes, is placed above the politically pragmatic.

Now, does anyone want to buy a used national church? It doesn't work properly and, in fact, causes more damage than it does good. It's a very old model that hasn't been upgraded for centuries. But it might have some scrap value to those interested in antiques or historical reenactments. It thinks it's worth far more than it actually is. You can have it for a tenner. Buyer must collect.

ALAIN DE BOTTON'S TEN COMMANDMENTS
FOR GOOD ATHEISTS AND TRUE

1. Resilience. Keeping going even when things are looking dark.

2. Empathy. The capacity to connect imaginatively with the sufferings and unique experiences of another person.

3. Patience. We should grow calmer and more forgiving by getting more realistic about how things actually tend to go.

4. Sacrifice. We won't ever manage to raise a family, love someone else or save the planet if we don't keep up with the art of sacrifice.

5. Politeness. Politeness is very linked to tolerance, the capacity to live alongside people whom one will never agree with, but at the same time, can't avoid.

6. Humour. Like anger, humour springs from disappointment, but it's disappointment optimally channelled.

7. Self-Awareness. To know oneself is to try not to blame others for one's troubles and moods; to have a sense of what's going on inside oneself, and what actually belongs to the world.

8. Forgiveness. It's recognising that living with others isn't possible without excusing errors.

9. Hope. Pessimism isn't necessarily deep, nor optimism shallow.

10. Confidence. Confidence isn't arrogance, it's based on a constant awareness of how short life is and how little we ultimately lose from risking everything.

I think Alain has made the right faith choice in life. I mean, let's face it, he's far too intelligent, tolerant, caring and downright nice to make it as a Christian. Although it is a bit of a shame as he did go to all the right schools and colleges to get picked for the higher offices in the Church of England. I know Harrow isn't quite Eton but in lean years it would have been good enough to have got him the top job itself.

MADPRIEST ON TODAY IN PARLIAMENT

I wonder how many Church of England priests have lost their jobs for speaking out against same gender marriage. I bet it is far less than the number who have lost jobs and promotion for speaking in favour. Discrimination against Christians is out there but most of it is Christian with power against Christian without power discrimination. Bishop against priest. Christian man against Christian woman. Straight Christian against gay Christian. What is happening in Parliament today is that those who have traditionally done the discriminating in the churches can see the pay back coming and knowing the pain they have caused to others now fear for themselves. Of course, the only pain they will end up feeling is the pain of losing their opportunity to derive pleasure from lording it over others and having their words of hate listened to by the public. That will be a real pain for them but it is not something the rest of us should worry unduly about.

DOUBLESPEAKING FOR JESUS

From LA GAZZETTA DEL MEZZOGIORNO:

The pope's minister for the family said the Church was against discrimination of gays but could not support same-sex marriage and praised protests in France opposing measures to legalize it.

"The Catholic Church is against discrimination," said Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia. "But we are also against same-sex marriage. This is not a religious belief, but the natural order of things. We cannot submit to a sick egalitarianism," he said.

DON'T BLAME ME, BLAME MRS MP

WHAT WOULD JESUS CURSE?

From NBC NEWS:

The powers-that-be are blaming an "abnormality" for the half-hour blackout that delayed the Super Bowl. But on Twitter, at least, they have another term for it: The Curse. Legend has it that New Orleans' Superdome is vexed by the angry spirits of the poor souls once buried beneath the stadium, their remains uprooted by backhoes during construction in the early 1970s.

Voodoo priestess Miriam Chamani was once enlisted by a radio station to bless the Superdome, using a live python and a pumpkin, before the Saints faced off against the Cleveland Browns in 1999. So what does she think zapped the juice in the third quarter as the Baltimore Raves sacked the San Francisco 49ers' quarterback Colin Kaepernick? Mystical tension? Beyond-the-grave type tension?

"No, just a lot of people using power," she said.

Well, of course it wasn't some sort of native American graveyard curse. In fact, it surprises me that nobody, as far as I know, has stated the obvious. It was the God of the Hebrews smiting the media covering the match because they ran a 60 second advertisement for Scientology. Or maybe is was the God of Plain English smiting Americans for not understanding the simple concept that a hand is not a foot.

WHAT WOULD JESUS DRINK?

From UPI.COM:

Fred Truluck of Bradenton, Florida, picked up a portion of a beer case because it was fish-shaped. When he flipped it over he saw the image of Jesus.

"I had it on the table, turned it over to the back, for some reason, and I said, 'Wow! There is Jesus,'" he said.

Truluck said he plans to frame the image and one day pass it down to his children.

Joe Davis, pastor at the Church of the Palms in Sarasota, said, "I don't think God goes and draws his face on a carton of beer. God would rather show his image through the works and love of his people than interact in the world."

It's people like Pastor Joe Davis who take all the fun out of both being Christian and drinking so much that you start imagining that Jesus is on your case of beer.

HATERS PLAY THE HATE CARD AND LOSE

From STUFF.CO.NZ:

A complaint about an Auckland church billboard questioning whether Jesus was gay has been dismissed on the grounds it wasn't offensive. The complaint to the Advertising Standards Authority said the representation of Jesus was "akin to hate speech."

The billboard was "prepared by a Christian church to promote debate within the Christian faith, as opposed to a deliberately offensive advertisement by an outside party for commercial gain, had been prepared with a due sense of social responsibility", the decision reads.

It's the makers of the complaint who should be punished for hate speech. They are trying to make out that saying Jesus might have been gay is hate speech. In other words they are saying being gay is an evil thing. Calling something evil that is not evil is a hateful thing to say. There is overwhelming consensus in Western Christianity that being gay is not intrinsically sinful so it can't be evil. The billboard outside St. Matthew-in-the-City made no comment about Christ's sexual activity. Therefore, the bringers of the complaint were being hateful towards gay people including celibate gay people.

WHAT WOULD JESUS LIE ABOUT?

From CHANGING ATTITUDE on Facebook:

RECORD SLEEVES WITH DOGS ON (20)

Monday, 4 February 2013

DEMOCRATICALLY MISRULED,
EPISCOPALLY MISLEAD

So, the new bishop of Canterbury goes on TV and says he is against (which in the new Rowanised Church of England evidently means the whole church is against) same gender marriage. What is his logic behind his stance? Well, he's agin it because marriage has always been between a man and a woman.

But.

Bishops in the Church of England have always been male. In fact, there is far more in the Bible about women not being allowed to be in positions of authority over men than there are references to homosexuality and Welby is very much a "Bible believing" evangelical. Yet, Welby is also 100% committed to women priests and bishops. I doubt he will have not noticed this inconsistency in his thinking himself. What on earth were they teaching the kids at Eton when Bishop Welby was there? Certainly not logic.

Those of us who spent Williams' reign showing up the magical thinking and lazy reasoning of the reactionaries in the Anglican churches are going to have start all over again. The hole, at head height, in the brick wall next to my computer is, no doubt, going to get a lot bigger over the next fifteen odd years.

Sunday, 3 February 2013

FOOTBALL EXPLAINED

Every year I try. Every year I fail.
But nobody can accuse me of lacking perseverance.

DON'T BLAME ME, BLAME MADDAD

LEARN CHRISTIANITY

Pastor Taylor is the one on the left.
The one on the right is his boyfriend.
(only joking big guy)

Oklahoma Pastor James Taylor says that the reason we can ignore Levitical rules about not eating pork, shrimp, clams or oysters but we can't ignore Levitical rules about homosexuality is because we have refrigeration nowadays.

So, there you have it.

You boys are okay with us Christians as long as you do it in the fridge.

Full story at
ON TOP MAGAZINE.

WHATEVER NEXT?!

I've been banging on at the Church of England authorities for nearly eight years now about the importance of choosing only babelicious women for the priesthood without any response from them. And now look! We've allowed the Methodists to steal a march on us.

GOODBYE KITTY

From ANIME NEWS NETWORK:

A shopping district in Kofu City removed the stone Hello Kitty statue from its "Kitty-chan Shrine" on Tuesday, just two days after it was installed. It installed the statue at the "Kofu Ginza Street" entrance in the city's Chūō ward to bring in more young customers, since Kofu is the birthplace of Sanrio's president Shintarō Tsuji. It also built a shrine out of cypress for the statue, and about 100 people attended the unveiling ceremony on Sunday. However, Sanrio learned about the statue from media reports of the unveiling and lodged a protest and a request for its removal.

Yet another attack on religious freedom.
I wouldn't be surprised that if you built a shrine to the Flying Spaghetti Monster, Heinz would sue you.

VIVE LA FRANCE

The black Muslims of Mali are, in my opinion, some of the most beautiful people in the world and they do make the most sublime music. When the Islamists took over the country a year ago, they covered up the beauty and silenced the music. This short video clip from the BBC says everything about freedom, especially female freedom, that needs to be said and justifies the French action in Mali 100 percent. And I am well proud that the British army was in there offering tactical support as well. Of course, the Islamists will commit many atrocities in retaliation for their humiliation in Mali because theirs is an ugly religion of death. But the joy the women in this video are feeling after so many months of fear and oppression is worth much sacrifice as it shows that the battle is between good and evil, not Christian and Muslim. It shows that Islam can be a beautiful religion. It shows that the beautiful people of the world, of all religions and none, can get together and defeat those who are frightened of beauty.

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