As an ex Roman Catholic and a person who believes in human beings seeking solutions through a broadly existential philosophy I should be mildly amused at the hostile bid made by Rome based Christianity for the Anglican Church.
The week long spat which has seen people from Frank Skinner for the Catholics to Lord Carey, retired Archbishop of Canterbury for the C of E and the Anglicans, swapping polite, but slightly acerbic verbals should be food and drink to us non-believers . But it remains very worrying that the Rome based brand of Christianity is globally in a marketing push carrying with it, views which have long been dismissed by most decent people in the developed world on the various issues of human rights including contraception, homosexuality and gender equality.
It should be noted, so soon after the Nick Griffin Show, that Mr Griffin is as one with Rome on blokes snogging in public
In today’s Times (26/10) The Bishop of Fulham, the Right Rev. John Broadhurst, campaigner against women priests and head man for the conservative Forward with Faith group supports the alignment with Rome and says “that’s what God wants”. He doesn’t say how he found out it was, what God wants and indeed how frequently he has discussed the issue with God or if God might be available for comment. But of course, as an ex Catholic I should remember that the Pope is God’s infallible spokesman on earth and he should know unequivocally what God wants. Infallibility does somewhat throttle debate. Among my dictionary definitions of infallible is “trustworthy”
Some new pals of John Broadhurst, collectively the Diocese of Wilmington, Delaware, recently filed for bankruptcy on the eve of a trial concerning sexual abuse by Catholic priests thereby delaying the claims of more than 140 victims (link here) and (here). The trial was to have been the first of 8 trials. The attorney for the claimants described the bankruptcy filing as a “desperate effort to hide the truth from the public and conceal thousands of pages of scandalous documents” from being aired in court. I wonder if bankruptcy for the diocese of Wilmington was what God wants
Richard Holloway, ex Bishop of Edinburgh and a man of faith I respect and whose books I have read, most courageously, I felt, chose part of a quote from a rather controversial and radical Russian Christian philosopher, Vasily Rosanov, as the title for an excellent and broad minded book entitled Looking in the Distance
“All religions will pass, but this will remain: simply sitting in a chair and looking in the distance”, Rosanov wrote.
Pope Benedict, The Right Reverend John Broadhurst and the Right Reverend Francis Mulooly of Wilmington Diocese have yet to spend enough time looking in the distance
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Racism begins with our families, parents, brothers and sisters, aunts and uncles, grandparents, people we admire, respect and love.
However, as we grow and mature we come to the realization that what we were told by our family when we were children were slanted lies base on their prejudices. We realize that most people are like ourselves and not so different and want the same things, like a home, steady work, a Medicare plan and schools for our children (if you travel you will see this). We realize that most people are of good hearts and goodwill.
This reminds me of a parable from the good book where a Levite and Priest come upon a man who fell among thieves and they both individually passed by and didn’t stop to help him.
Finally a man of another race came by, he got down from his beast, decided not to be compassionate by proxy and got down with the injured man, administered first aid, and helped the man in need.
Jesus ended up saying, this was the good man, this was the great man, because he had the capacity to project the “I” into the “thou,” and to be concerned about his fellow man.
You see, the Levite and the Priest were afraid, they asked themselves, “If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?”
But then the Good Samaritan came by. And he reversed the question: “If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?”
That’s the question before us. The question is not, “If I stop to help our fellow man (immigrant) in need, what will happen to me?” The question is, “If I do not stop to help our fellow man, what will happen to him or her?” That’s the question.
This current climate of blaming others for our woes is not new. We have had this before and we have conquered it.
Remember “Evil flourishes when good men (and women) do nothing”. Raise your voices with those of us who believe we are equal and we can win this battle again.
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