Islamization: Some People Are Too Dumb to Get It, Mr Pitcher!
THE TELEGRAPH – BLOGS: We Christians need to shape up apparently. Enough of this turning the other cheek, lovey-dovey self-sacrifice and expecting the meek to inherit the earth. We need a bit of moral fibre, ideological backbone and standing astride a broken piano sporting ammo belts and singing Rock of Ages would be nice too. We need some lead in the pencil and fire in the belly.
That seems to be the message from a couple of huge figures in the European Church this morning. According to Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, Christians have been “too soft” and have let others “walk over them” to avoid upsetting other faiths. And Miloslav Vlk, Archbishop of Prague, says that “Europeans systematically empty the Christian content of their lives.”
Carey’s comments came after an all-party group of parliamentarians warned that failing to limit immigration could put “social harmony” at risk. Vlk is more explicit: “Unless Christians wake up, life may be Islamised.” He blames secularism rather than Muslims and I agree with that, though I believe that the so-called “threat” of Islamification is way over-stated and a knicker-wetting bogeyman invented by not very bright nationalists. How do we put some lead in the Christian pencil? >>> George Pitcher | Thursday, January 07, 2010
Monday, July 06, 2009
There's No Pride in Bashing Gays, Bishop
THE TELEGRAPH: Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali's campaign against homosexuality worries George Pitcher.
If you're reading, Bishop Michael, I really didn't want to have another pop at you about your trenchant and sometimes bizarre views about what constitutes Christian truth. As to the rest of you reading this, I'm sorry if it looks as if whenever Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who retires as Bishop of Rochester in September, makes a public statement I launch an attack on him. Believe me, the routine is tiresome for me, too.
But his comments in yesterday's Sunday Telegraph, which he is expected to repeat today, that homosexuals should "repent and be changed" cannot pass unchallenged. Or rather, they should not go challenged only by homosexual rights campaigners, such as Peter Tatchell, who you would expect to be somewhat antipathetic to the expressed view.
Because Dr Nazir-Ali is wrong in the eyes of a broad swath of kind and tolerant people of differing sexualities, social mores and of the Christian faith, other faiths and no faith at all. Badly, badly wrong.
I say that I didn't want to have another fight with him because such fights polarise Anglicans, and we're at our best when we're talking. I went to a private lunch recently, to which Dr Nazir-Ali was also invited. He didn't show. The seat next to me went empty. I do hope he didn't bottle it; it's important that religious leaders don't just inhabit comfort zones with friends who share their views.
Dr Nazir-Ali's friends are the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans (Foca), who this week will try to get the Anglican schism over homosexuality going again, while denying that they are doing any such thing. Had he turned up to our lunch, I would have asked him why he and Foca are so convinced that they know the mind of God better than those who disagree with them and that their interpretation of scripture is with absolute certainty the one and only true one.
When I write about the Church and homosexuality, inevitably I receive messages that read simply "Romans 1:26-27" or "1 Corinthians 6:9", as if that settles something. We can argue scripture until we're at the pearly gates. But the essential difference between Dr Nazir-Ali and me is this: I accept, disappointing as I would find it in my fiery furnace, that he might be right. By contrast, he and his friends cannot accept that I might be right, claim that I can't be a proper Christian, and some of them go so far as to suggest that I'll burn in hell for all eternity.
And there's the real problem: it's an issue of intolerance. Anglicanism has long been characterised by a broad tolerance. But my tolerance of Dr Nazir-Ali and his friends, that they are Anglicans with whom I happen vehemently to disagree, doesn't seem to be reciprocated.
Dr Nazir-Ali is leaving his bishopric, it is said, to develop his ministry among persecuted Christians. That is admirable. Persecution of Christians is a very bad thing. But persecution of homosexuals is a pretty bad thing, too, as is persecution of any part of humanity, all of which he will agree is made in God's image. >>> George Pitcher | Monday, July 06, 2009
