Sunday, 10. February 2008, 16:50:47
religion
There are times when some people manage to be so daft it almost leaves you speechless.
Now is one of those times, and the person is the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Now I'm no great fan of the man, and I am writing from the position of an outsider looking in, being neither a christian or a member of the Church of England. I had (naively) some hopes about him when he was appointed, largely on the basis that the fundamentalists hated him so he coudn't be all bad. But then he failed to appoint a bishop on the basis that he was gay, then he sat on the fence in the teeth of appalling homophobic bigotry from a bunch of African bishops instead of supporting the US church. Now he suggests incorporating elements of sharia law into our legal system.
You wonder what he was on at the time...
And I'm left wondering how I ended up in the same camp as the fundies wanting his resignation. Erk...
Monday, 2. April 2007, 12:54:57
religion
I've just watched what I was expecting to be an upsetting and disturbing documentary: Louis Theroux with the most hated family in America. It's about the Westboro Baptist Church from somewhere in Kansas, who make most fundamentalists seem sane. There's only about 70 of them (nearly all from one family), but they're obsessed with hating homosexuality and anything they (somewhat arbitrarily) lump together with it, including the US services. Which must be news to the gay personnel forced to hide their sexuality in the American military... Watching one of them smile with pleasure at the thought of Theroux burning in hell was very disconcerting, but by the end of the programme I'd actually started to feel a bit sorry for that particular woman: she was obviously having difficulty with the questions Theroux was putting to her, and I had the impression he'd managed to penetrate her defences slightly. The whole thing is run by its "pastor", an angry and miserable old man, seemingly devoid of compassion (I kept thinking of the grandfather in the Texas chainsaw massacre...). At least he was congruent, unlike most of them who smiled away while picketing the funerals of soldiers who'd died in Iraq (even the most ardent anti-war protester wouldn't stoop that low). Some of it was surreal: picketing a shop which sold Swedish vacuum cleaners because the Swedes imprisoned a preacher who preached hatred against gay people (if it's the case I'm thinking of, he wasn't actually imprisoned, but what's truth got to do with any of this?). But the lasting impression is one of staggering ignorance and hatred, and vileness being spewed with a smile. Oddly, it wasn't really an upsetting and disturbing programme in the end. More reassuring, in that I'm so glad to be me (with all my neuroses, fears and anger) and not them, filled with that level of fear and hate. Made my own fear and hate look like chicken feed!
Thursday, 29. March 2007, 23:05:44
religion, politics
Guess this counts as first real post, as opposed to lots of frustrating tests etc.
I was struck tonight by the difference between what's happening in Ulster and what's happening with Iran.
On the one hand you have the almost unbelievable sight of Paisley and Adams sitting down together after 40-odd years of conflict. Something I would have said was impossible for most of my life.
On the other hand you have the Iranians living down to their stereotypes and showing they really have no idea about western culture. You would think that after the last time they kidnapped a bunch of British soldiers and paraded them on TV spouting coerced tripe they would have twigged that this doesn't play well with us. But no, here we go again with that poor woman being forced to wear a bag over her hair and spout junk for the cameras. Apalling. Makes even level-headed Brits want to see our patrols armed to the teeth, and ready to blow any Revolutionary Guards who foolishly come within range to bits...
WIDGETIZE