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News & Politics Links

Ugandan Talibanglicans and the insane Christian Voice

December 22, 2009

I haven’t bothered before to blog on the odious Ugandan proposals for the judicial murder of gay people. It seems to me that most expressions of Western outrage and condemnation are more likely than not to be counter-productive. However, I note from Richard Bartholomew that the laughing stock of the self-proclaimed Christian Voice, Stephen Green, [...]

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Shoplifting for Jesus

December 22, 2009

The Church Mouse, not unreasonably, thinks the priest who told people it was all right to go shoplifting for Christmas is a bit of a twit – to put it mildly.
One commenter on his post draws attention to a bizarre defence by Civitas of this strange advice. Civitas describes its role as offering “primary education [...]

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Today’s persecuted Christian story: free speech or family rights?

December 20, 2009

There is another “unChristian Britain” story in the press today, which is beginning to get picked up around the wires. This one is about a supply teacher who was given no more work after discussing her faith with a pupil. The story is from the Mail, and fits one of their favourite templates, so more [...]

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Loved this headline

December 15, 2009
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From the BBC a curiously upside-down headline. “Crook says, don’t try to link me to that politician. I’m an honest criminal.”

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It’s a bad start to the week for satirists

December 7, 2009

A chef is charged with cruelty to animals for killing a rat for food instead of extermination.
Disney World twins with Swindon.
You really couldn’t make it up. How do you do satire when life is this weirdly self-parodying?

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Sometimes history is good

November 9, 2009
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There are very few occasions when you know history is being made even as you watch it happening. For sometime it wasn’t entirely clear what it meant, but 20 years ago today I was glued to the news as the Berlin Wall ceased to divide the world. In some respects it has remained in my [...]

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So much for scientific police investigation techniques

November 6, 2009

I suspect there is an impossible-to-settle contest of claim and counter-claim between Christian faith and enlightenment rationalism about who has made the greater contribution towards disenchanting the world of a pantheon of powers and forces. Chesterton’s alleged polemical comment that “When men stop believing in God they don’t believe in nothing; they believe in anything” [...]

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A traditional Anglican? Questionable, to say the least.

October 22, 2009

The kerfuffle continues. Most of what I think is in this post. I also draw attention, above and beyond the link there, to (Anglican) Bishop Alan Wlison, and US Catholic site Commonweal.
I note, as this saga develops, that many (most) commentators and journalists assume that the self-proclaimed “Traditional Anglican Communion” is among the primary targets [...]

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The End is not yet. Good news from Sheffield

October 15, 2009

Posted today on Facebook.

University of Sheffield Statement on the Department of Biblical Studies
The University of Sheffield has today confirmed its position with regard to the future of the Department of Biblical Studies. In the light of concerns regarding inadequate consultation, as well as feedback from staff and students, the Department of Biblical Studies is no [...]

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Sheffield and the bureaucratic monochromatic Borg: resistance is not futile

October 11, 2009

Jim West has an update from an insider source. It is comprehensive and answers some of the questions I raised earlier. It chimes with what has come my way this evening from a horse’s mouth that I trust.
Here’s an excerpt:
There is a general feeling, then, that the move against Biblical Studies is ideological and not [...]

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