The United Church of Canada is even dafter than the Anglican Church

Question: is there a dafter church than the Anglican Church of Canada?

Answer: you bet – it’s the United Church of Canada.

In many ways, the United Church has paved the way for Anglicans: it has pioneered absurd political correctness by expunging “Father” from it’s hymnbooks, embraced gayness with the enthusiasm of a bear finding a jar of honey, and championed every potty left-wing ignis fatuus  known to man.

And now, out of the plethora of demonically evil nations to select from, it has, instead, chosen Israel for special approbation while ignoring models of utopian harmony such as Iran and North Korea.

The United Church of Canada is back in the news this week for having its head trapped in its fundament, as attendees of its upcoming general council will be asked to vote on a resolution boycotting Israeli academic and cultural institutions for tiresomely familiar reasons. The language of the resolution suggests that Israel stands out amongst the nations of the world as a uniquely horrible monster: it is said to operate what is described as a “regime of exclusion, violence and dehumanization directed against Palestinians.”

As if there weren’t 50 other boycottable countries that routinely and intentionally inflict these things on their citizens in a wholly undifferentiated way, without the mitigating features of Israeli rule — democratic checks and balances, a code and ethos of individual rights, rules of engagement for the military and the police, a free press, economic freedom and an independent judiciary.

It looks like Fred Hiltz has some catching up to do.

Michael Bird is starting to make sense

h/t: Warren

Four men and a baby

A sacrifice to Moloch:

Two gay policemen who became the first British same-sex couple to have a baby through a relative are both married – to other men.

Stephen Ponder, 28, a special constable, and his partner Ivan Sigston, 43, a Hampshire police dog handler, are now fathers to William who was born three weeks ago.

It was Mr Ponder’s sister, Lorna Bradley, who gave birth to the child having conceived using PC Sigston’s sperm.

So, to summarise, two homosexual policemen wanted to have a baby. One of them persuaded his sister to have a baby using his paramour’s sperm and give the baby to them. They are both actually “married” to other people – both men. They met while still “married” and became sexually involved because they were both interested in dogs; I don’t think the dogs were married to anyone.

Now they both want to divorce their man-wives so that they can “marry” each other and adopt the baby.

The only thing that is clear about all this is that absolutely no one is giving any thought whatsoever to the welfare of the baby.

Science and Magic

The other evening I watched the new Harry Potter film, The Half-Blood Prince; it isn’t as good as the book. But it did get me thinking about the hypothetical existence of magic and its relationship to the material and supernatural. According to Arthur C. Clarke, magic cannot exist and, if it seems to, that is merely because any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic; magic, in Clarke’s view, is simply science in disguise. David Bentley Hart makes an interestingly similar – but considerably more subtle – point: magic is preoccupied with the manipulation of the material world and, as such, has more in common with science than the transcendent:

In truth, the rise of modem science and the early modern obsession with sorcery were not merely contemporaneous currents within Western society but were two closely allied manifestations of the development of a new post-Christian sense of human mastery over the world. There is nothing especially outrageous in such a claim. After all, magic is essentially a species of materialism; if it invokes any agencies beyond the visible sphere, they are not supernatural—in the theological sense of “transcendent”—but at most preternatural: they are merely, that is to say, subtler, more potent aspects of the physical cosmos. Hermetic magic and modem science (in its most Baconian form at least) are both concerned with hidden forces within the material order, forces that are largely impersonal and morally neutral, which one can learn to manipulate, and which may be turned to ends fair or foul; both, that is to say, are concerned with domination of the physical cosmos, the instrumental subjection of nature to humanity, and the constant increase of human power. Hence, there was not really any late modem triumph of science over magic, so much as there was a natural dissolution of the latter into the former, as the power of science to accomplish what magic could only adumbrate became progressively more obvious. Or, rather, “magic” and “science” in the modern period are distinguishable only retrospectively, according to relative degrees of efficacy. There never was, however, an antagonism between the two: metaphysically, morally, and conceptually, they belonged to a single continuum.

I’m not sure what Albus Dumbledore would make of that but, for any atheist who might be eager to comment, please use your God-given grey cells to understand the point before using them to animate your fingers at the keyboard.

Anglicanism: why bother?

The reputation of the Western Anglican church is hovering between irrelevant and international laughingstock.

The Guardian conducted a poll on whether holding the Anglican Communion together matters:

The Anglican communion’s foundations are looking shaky in the wake of a controversial Episcopal vote. But does it really matter if this church fragments? Is it time to ditch the idea of a coherent, single Anglican communion? In short, is the Anglican communion worth it?

Incalescence in the Anglican Church of Canada

The Anglican Church in the West, having largely abandoned the gospel of the bible, has settled on Global Warming and same-gender copulation as worthy replacements. So much attention has been given to the latter, that global warming tends to receive short shrift.

To set the record straight: there are protests (ironically, this one begins “Braving gusty winds, Anglicans….”), sections on web sites,  and gruesome  Eco-Justice camps. Not to mention excruciating liturgies,  green worship,  how to have a relationship with the earth,  and green cleaning,  grounds and meetings.

The Anglican Church, where you can’t get no calefaction:

Global warming is the new religion of First World urban elites

Geologist Ian Plimer takes a contrary view, arguing that man-made climate change is a con trick perpetuated by environmentalists

Ian Plimer has outraged the ayatollahs of purist environmentalism, the Torquemadas of the doctrine of global warming, and he seems to relish the damnation they heap on him.

Plimer is a geologist, professor of mining geology at Adelaide University, and he may well be Australia’s best-known and most notorious academic.

Plimer, you see, is an unremitting critic of “anthropogenic global warming” — man-made climate change to you and me — and the current environmental orthodoxy that if we change our polluting ways, global warming can be reversed.

The Anglican Church of Canada has noticed that it is getting hotter: but it’s the flames of hell licking its foundations, not global warming.

An example of critical thinking à la Dawkins

Camp Quest is the atheist summer camp for children. The camp prides itself on teaching children to think critically. Hence we have the invisible unicorns:

Astronomy, critical thinking, philosophy and pseudo-science are covered at Camp Quest.

One of the most popular exercises is the invisible unicorn challenge. The children are told there are two invisible unicorns who live at Camp Quest but that they cannot be seen, heard, felt or smelt, and do not leave a trace. A book about them has been handed down through the ages but it is too precious for anyone to see.

All counsellors – as the adults are called – are said to be staunch believers in these unicorns.

Any child who can successfully prove that the invisible unicorns do not exist is rewarded with a prize: a £10 note with a picture of Charles Darwin on it signed by Richard Dawkins, or a “godless” $100 bill, printed before 1957 when “In God We Trust” was added to paper currency in the US.

Clearly, the unicorns are supposed to represent God. The purpose of the exercise appears to be to show that the burden of proof lies with the unicorn-believers. The problem is, the councillors don’t actually believe in the unicorns so they obviously can’t give reasons for their pretend belief, the book – the unicorn bible – is not something that can be read and the unicorns have no discernible effect on reality.

None of this corresponds to Christianity where God does act, the bible is not only read but has been the inspiration for all that is best in our culture, and people actually do believe and can explain why they do. While this does not offer proof of God’s existence, it does illustrate that a belief in God is no less rational than a disbelief in him; the believer is under no more burden to provide iron-clad proof of his belief than the atheist of his non-belief.

The unicorn exercise is not one of critical thinking but of constructing and demolishing a straw man: very rational.

Diocese of Niagara in competition with New Westminster

The Diocese of Niagara has declared that it is pressing ahead with same-sex blessings:

Effective September 1, 2009, permission will be granted by Bishop Michael Bird for the use of the Niagara Rite as outlined in the protocols that are included.

In a moment of mincingly understated candour Fred Hiltz admitted that this might “create some tension”:

The decision by the diocese of Niagara to offer same-sex blessings as of Sept. 1 is bound to create some tension among bishops, says Archbishop Fred Hiltz, primate of the Anglican Church of Canada.

In contrast, Michael Ingham in New Westminster is paying advanced lip-service to the pretence of pacifying conservatives by limiting parishes that conduct same-sex blessings to a mere 8: Bird makes no such promise:

No more parishes may bless same sex couples for forseeable [sic] future

For the foreseeable future, the blessing of the union of gay and lesbian Anglicans will continue to be limited to eight parishes in the diocese.

One can only assume that Michael Bird is eager to thrust Ingham out of the limelight and grab some well-deserved notoriety for himself. When the death of the Anglican Church of Canada is chronicled by a church historian in the not too distant future, Bird will take his rightful place as the Michael who assisted with the coup de gras by putting the boot in at the level which befits his stature.

Rowan Williams: extreme waffle

Rowan Williams has made a statement on TEC’s GC2009. It is classic Rowan, dangling tempting titbits before the noses of both sides in the hope of bringing them within sniffing distance of each other and thus maintain the illusion of unity:

It helps to be clear about these possible futures, however much we think them less than ideal, and to speak about them not in apocalyptic terms of schism and excommunication but plainly as what they are – two styles of being Anglican, whose mutual relation will certainly need working out but which would not exclude co-operation in mission and service of the kind now shared in the Communion. It should not need to be said that a competitive hostility between the two would be one of the worst possible outcomes, and needs to be clearly repudiated. The ideal is that both ‘tracks’ should be able to pursue what they believe God is calling them to be as Church, with greater integrity and consistency. It is right to hope for and work for the best kinds of shared networks and institutions of common interest that could be maintained as between different visions of the Anglican heritage. And if the prospect of greater structural distance is unwelcome, we must look seriously at what might yet make it less likely.

When Rowan declares that “it helps to be clear” one suspects that he must be about to quote from someone else; but no. Apparently we have now “two styles of being Anglican” each proceeding along its own track: perhaps the track idea was inspired by N. T. Wright’s train wreck article.

What is sadly missing in Rowan’s attempt to put a brave face on things is the apparent absence of any understanding that, if a church persistently denies doctrines that are necessary for it to be called Christian, it should no longer be called that. For Rowan, the important thing is that Anglican provinces can hold radically different views on the centrality of Christ, the importance of the bible, the meaning of individual salvation and still be called “Anglican” – even if one has ceased to be Christian.

This morning’s sermon

Islamist horror killings

I can’t bring myself to call them “honour killings”:

Almost as soon as news broke that the murders of three Afghan-Canadian teenage sisters and their father’s first wife in Kingston, Ont., were possible “honour killings,” some in the Muslim community reacted in the most predictable fashion: defensiveness and denial.

Instead of voicing outrage at the murders, two Muslim callers to my CFRB radio show in Toronto slammed me for raising the subject, and suggested I had some hidden agenda. “This has nothing to do with Islam,” said one caller, despite the fact no one on the show had, to that point, even mentioned the word “Islam,” let alone accused the religion of sanctioning honour killings.

The callers were not alone. The head of the Canadian branch of the Islamic Society of North America (ISNA) told the CBC more or less the same thing – that the story was unrelated to Islam, which apparently does not permit honour killings.

They are both right and wrong. It is true that Islam’s holy book, the Koran, does not sanction honour killings. But to deny the fact that many incidents of honour killings are conducted by Muslim fathers, sons and brothers, and that many victims are Muslim women, is to exercise intellectual dishonesty. At worst, it is an attempt to shut off debate.

It seems that when a religion goes off the rails it becomes obsessed with sex. In Islam’s case the obsession is that men are so sexually fragile that a glimpse of female flesh will lead to an unrestrained spontaneous orgasmic frenzy: that may indeed be true for the purveyors of this view – demented mullahs. For their sake women are supposed to wear tents over their heads. This means that when there is sexual activity between a Muslim woman and someone other than her owner-husband, it must be her fault and she deserves to die.

Similarly for another derailed religion, Western Anglicanism, everything revolves around sex; except in our case the emphasis is on the freedom to copulate with anything with a nominal body temperature of 37 degrees regardless of gender or species (it’s coming), provided the coupling is in some way committed.

h/t: A Reasonable Faith

Anglican gender putty

The Anglican Church in the US – TEC – in resolution C061 at the 2009 General Convention, has added gender identity and gender expression to the list of otherwise predictable categories that cannot be used to exclude a person from ministering in what is left of its church.

This reinforces the strange contention that, contrary to all evidence that may be externally visible, the sex of a person internally is something that is determined by them alone, perhaps on a whim, and this determination should be respected by otherwise sane onlookers.

Were it not for the fact that we are in an age of gender chaos and have developed a degree of immunity to its ubiquitous peculiarities, I could not reasonably expect a declaration that I am a man on the outside and a woman on the inside to be take any more seriously than one that says I am a man on the outside and a duck on the inside – and I want my quacks to be treated with respect.

The muddle in the Anglican church is a pathetic reflection of what we find in secular organisations:

A transsexual jailed for strangling her boyfriend has gone to the High Court claiming that keeping her in a men’s prison violates her human rights under European law.

The prisoner, in her 20s and serving a life sentence for manslaughter and attempted rape, is legally female and her birth certificate has been amended accordingly, London’s High Court heard.

Born male, she has had hair on her face and legs permanently removed by laser and has developed breasts after hormone treatment.

Describing her as ‘a woman trapped inside a man’s body’, barrister Phillipa Kaufman said the prisoner was desperate for gender reassignment surgery but medics have refused unless she has lived as a woman for an extended period – only possible if she is moved to a female jail.

I must admit, if Katharine Jefferts-Schori were to come out and expose her inner man, I would not be that surprised.

Defacing the Bible as Art

It was only a matter of time, I suppose, before the bankrupt wreckage that passes for art in today’s culture came up with a newly minted piece of drivel like this:

An art exhibition where people are encouraged to write in a Bible has seen visitors daub abuse and obscenities across its pages.

Part of Made in God’s Image, the exhibit also includes a video of a woman ripping pages from the Bible and stuffing them into her bra, knickers and mouth.

Next to the copy of the Bible at the Gallery of Modern Art (Goma) in Glasgow is a container of pens and a notice, which says: ‘If you feel you have been excluded from the Bible, please write your way back into it.’

The taxpayer subsidised Goma Gallery also features a gay pornography exhibit intended to combat homophobia; the theory appears to be that a display of the grotesque is the path to social acceptance.

Undoubtedly the organisers of this nonsense see it as a courageous statement. It isn’t of, course: if they wanted to do something courageous they would deface a Koran.

Diocese of Niagara: Reaction to same-sex blessing rite

The Bishop of Caledonia doesn’t approve:

“As a bishop, I cannot recognize the legitimacy of what Niagara is doing,” said Bishop Bill Anderson of the diocese of Caledonia. “I sadly conclude that Niagara has chosen to walk apart, and is therefore in a state of impaired communion.”

Bishop Bird from the Niagara Diocese claims, however, that the blessing of same-sex-couples is prophetic, not contrary to the core doctrine of the ACoC – many people have searched for years and still have found nothing that is contrary to the core doctrine of the ACoC – and is fully in line with the typical Anglican heterosexual wedding:

Antony Flew: the integrated complexity of life points to God

Antony Flew, British philosopher and former atheist, looks at the same evidence as Richard Dawkins and comes to the opposite conclusion: