Monthly Archives: October 2012

Desmond Tutu’s lucrative trade in clichés

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Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been given $1M for “Speaking Truth to Power”.

In criticising Tutu, I know I am beating a dead horse, so, going forward, I should probably take the high road by giving him some tough love. Still, it is what it is.

From here:

Veteran peace campaigner Archbishop Desmond Tutu has been awarded $1m (£620,000) by the Mo Ibrahim Foundation for “speaking truth to power”.

The London-based Foundation called the cleric “one of Africa’s great voices for justice, freedom, democracy and responsible, responsive government”.

He won the Nobel Peace Prize – and 10m Swedish Krona (£935,000) – in 1984 for his campaign against apartheid.

 

The bacon hate crime

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Bacon dumped on the doorstep of a mosque may be a ‘hate crime’, apparently. I concede that the act may have been motivated by hatred – or it could have been a practical joke – but where is the crime? No-one was injured, nothing was stolen, no Korans were injured, desecrated or despoiled and the Prophet, peace be upon him, was not depicted in effigy in a sexually compromising position or with a bomb in his hat. There was no crime.

To his credit, the Muslim in charge of the mosque doesn’t seem overly perturbed – perhaps he is a closet bacon lover – but the constabulary, whose cholesterol aversion sensibilities must be more finely honed, are “disturbed” by the incident.

We have progressed to the era of the “I am offended” crime.

From here:

Mounties are investigating the possibility of a hate crime after several piles of bacon were found outside a mosque in Port Coquitlam, B.C.

Police say it’s the second such act of vandalism and mischief at the Islamic Society of British Columbia mosque and Islamic centre in the last 18 months.

Muslims consider pork a symbol of impurity.

Society president Saad Bahr says it’s clear the action was intended to offend, but his group would welcome the opportunity to speak to those responsible to have them learn more about Muslim beliefs.

 

Advice to Canadian Muslim husbands: lightly hit your disobedient wives

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Although there are calls for the law to change, as of now, it is still legal in Canada to discipline your disobedient child by spanking him.

But what about disobedient wives?

Marriage counselling that included spanking – or “lightly hitting” – a “disobedient wife” outside the context of Islam would, in this day and age, be risible, a deserved invitation to universal denunciation and derision.

I doubt that Muslims of Calgary have offered this sober advice for promoting marital harmony in jest or in a spirit of self-mockery, though: Islam isn’t much given to introspection let alone satire, humour – or having any fun at all, really. Other than husbands lightly hitting their wives.

From here:

Members of a Calgary Muslim association appear to have removed marital advice from a website that suggested “lightly hitting” one’s wife in “extreme cases of disobedience” after a query about the content was made by Metro.

The posting dated Sept. 29 on muslimsofcalgary.ca appears to be an English-translated summary of two books written in Arabic by Sheikh Mohammed Abdelhaleem Hamed, titled “How to Make Your Husband Happy” and “How to Make Your Wife Happy.”

 

Son of fuddle duddle

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Justin Trudeau, peering down from the lofty heights of inherited privilege, cries “begone” to the envy and mistrust that has infested Canadian politics for the last – well, since his father invoked the war measures act in October 1970, suspended civil liberties and set tanks on the lawn of the parliament buildings.

Still, as Trudeau the younger notes, “our greatest strength is above ground” and his father is below it, so he is ready “to build a better life, a better Canada.”

A poll suggests that, with Trudeau at the helm, the liberals would win the next election. Jaundiced as I am about the tastes of Canada’s voting public, I still can’t fathom why someone whose grasp of a reasoned argument in defence of the Kyoto Protocol extends only so far as calling the Environment Minister a “piece of shit”, would end up as prime minister.

But, then, people voted for Trudeau senior and junior is merely following in Pop’s footsteps.

From here:

Justin Trudeau is off and running to lead the federal Liberals, determined to breathe new life into a party he says has lost touch with middle-class Canadians — and confront those critics who say he’s just a pretty face with a famous last name.

Hundreds of supporters in his riding of Papineau cheered as the 40-year-old Montreal MP confirmed his leadership ambitions, easily among the worst-kept political secrets in Canada.

“I am running because I believe this country wants and needs new leadership, a vision for Canada’s future grounded not in the politics of envy or mistrust,” Trudeau told a crowd peppered with Liberal party luminaries.

“One that understands, despite all the blessings beneath our feet, that our greatest strength is above ground, in our people. All Canadians, pulling together, determined to build a better life, a better Canada.”

Rowan Williams congratulates himself on not being too cautious

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Unfortunately, he threw caution to the wind when pontificating on political matters that were really not his primary concern, thereby earning derision from the right and applause from the left, and timid to the point of abject poltroonery when it came to standing up for the Christian Gospel.

If, as the remarks below imply, he really did say what he believed, he would have been better suited to the job of Labour Party backbencher than Archbishop of Canterbury.

From here:

In a question and answer session at the end of a densely theological lecture on the nature of the individual, organised by the religion think tank Theos, Dr Williams admitted some of his statements, which have touched controversially on issues from the Iraq war to government economic policies, were risky.

He said: “I just don’t think that it will do to be too cautious in a job like this, you are here, as is true for any archbishop, you are here to try and say what you believe you have been given to say – by which I don’t mean by divine inspiration.

“To try and share a particular picture of what the world is like, what God is like, which of course leads you into sometimes risky and anything but infallible judgments about particular issues of the day.”

Diocese of Rupert’s Land supports healthcare for refugees

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The headline of this article from the Journal declares: “Rupert’s Land goes to bat for refugees”. Good for Rupert’s Land, you might think: they are paying the healthcare costs for some refugees.

Not at all. The Diocese of Rupert’s Land isn’t spending money to improve refugee healthcare, it’s spending it on suing the federal government to compel it to use everyone else’s money to pay for refugee healthcare. To rub salt in the wound, the healthcare is better than that enjoyed by the taxpayers from whom the federal government collects the money.

This is the Anglican Church of Canada’s charitable giving modus operandi: don’t spend money on helping people when you can sue someone else to make them do it instead.

Federal cuts to refugee health care will deter church groups from sponsoring refugees, Anglican Church of Canada officials have warned. “Clearly, it would cut down on the number of refugees that we are able to accept because church groups just don’t have the resources to pay [for medical care],” said Bishop Don Phillips of the diocese of Rupert’s Land, where more than 2,000 refugees have been sponsored.

Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada, and Adele Finney, executive director of the Primate’s World Relief and Development Fund, have expressed “deep concern” about the cuts to the Interim Federal Health program. Previously, private sponsors assumed the cost of food, shelter and transportation for a year, while the government provided health care. Under the revised rules, which took effect June 30, church-sponsored refugees will no longer have access to government-funded health care.

On June 26, the diocese of Rupert’s Land and the Hospitality House Refugee Ministry, which sponsors refugees with funds from the Anglican diocese of Rupert’s Land and the Roman Catholic Archepiscopal Corporation of Winnipeg, announced plans to file a lawsuit against the federal government.

 

An Anglican Church won’t allow yoga classes on its premises

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In a shocking development from the UK, St. Andrew’s in Dibden won’t allow an elderly grandmother to teach yoga on its premises on the grounds that yoga has its roots in Hinduism.

What is the matter with this church, one wonders? Where is its sense of inclusion, of diversity, of being “spiritual but not religious”, of there being many ways to the Father? Entirely absent, it seems: if I lived in Dibden, I would attend St. Andrew’s.

From here:

THE Anglican Church has been dragged into the yoga controversy – by banning an 81-year- old Christian fitness instructor from holding classes at a Hampshire church hall.

Despite being retired for more than 20 years, Eileen Meegan tirelessly teaches yoga for four hours a week – making sure pensioners socialise, keep supple and are de-stressed.

But the Daily Echo can today reveal that St Andrew’s C of E Church in Dibden Purlieu has banned her classes from its premises.

It joins the Roman Catholic St Edmund’s Church in Southampton which banned yoga teacher Cori Withell from its hall, saying her classes were not compatible with the Catholic faith.