Category: The Dish

A reader writes:

As a cradle Episcopalian, I share the belief that that the Anglican Communion should be dissolved. The present divide is distracting the churches of the Communion from the core principles of Christianity and fostering greater repression in countries like Nigeria by creating a "burning issue" where none should exist. 

For those of us old enough to remember it, this dispute really started with the ordination of women, an issue still not fully resolved. Repression of women in the "southern communions" is as integral a part of their defense of alleged doctrinal purity as repression of gay people. Much of this arises directly from the evangelical competition between Christianity and Islam in parts of Africa and Indonesia especially. In Nigeria, this competition has direct political and tribal implications as the Christian tribal elite in the south tries to maintain its dominance over the Isamic north. The Anglicans have decided to out-Herod Herod and meet the Islamic challenge by imposing a sort of Sharia that will, supposedly, allow them to share the moral "high ground" with their competitors. 

In the US, many parishes within ECUSA split long ago over the issue of the role of women. We have been here before. In my view, the Episcopal Church in the United States of America is better for having let those voices of repression depart. I say, "Good riddance." While I would never refuse to take the Eucharist with a declared homophobe or misogynist and I continue to pray that we all become more tolerant of one another, the day of reckoning is upon us, and it is better that, as organized churches, we part company and, in the words of St Paul, work out our own salvations.

JPod would be in ecstasy. Pieter Dorsman reviews "The Conservative Soul" here.

He’s always worth watching, if not trusting. Money quote from a new interview:

U.S. officials without question represent the strongest force, both politically and military, in Iraq. Therefore, it is not serious to pursue their role as spectators. They will have a significant role to play, and I believe that by the mere factor of being present in the same conference room as the Syrians and the Iranians at this level in Baghdad is very significant. I mean, after all, we tried very hard to get this meeting going last year, almost one year ago. It almost happened then. But then it was foiled at the last minute. One year later, they are back to the same situation, except now it is a multilateral thing — with the U.S. and Iran to sit in the same conference room.

The whole interview is interesting – not least because Chalabi claims some credit for persuading the Shiite militias to hold fire for a while:

You notice that there has been very little activity by the Sadrists in the past six weeks, despite major provocation with bomb attacks and assassinations, kidnappings, that have happened frequently—yet they have not responded. That is a significant factor. This outcome did not happen in a vacuum. There was major effort to persuade the Sadrists. Many people participated in it. There were feted meetings with the mayor of Sadr City—who is not part of the Sadrist movement of the Mahdi Army, but he has authority from them to pursue these meetings — and the multinational force, and political officers from the embassy.

He’s also talking about the Turkish government sending a delegation to Baghdad soon. Hmmm.

But the headline is pretty close. (Hat tip: Gay Orbit.)

He’s gaining on Clinton.

A reader writes:

This morning I was in an internet cafe in Hackney – of course you’ll know it’s one of the poorer Inner-London boroughs – checking my emails when I witnessed something odd; the Somalian owner interrupting his morning prayers (which were taking place behind the counter) to help out a middle-aged skinhead who’d managed to crash his computer when posting messages on a British National Party chatroom.

Quite what this says about British multi-culturalism, I don’t know.

It says good things, I’d say. Of course, when your computer goes down, prejudice always tends to evaporate.

I explained. She’s fine. But I forgot about this. Not a good idea to tell your mum (and yes, she’s English so I’m sticking to the vowel) that two people were shot on your block last Saturday afternoon. That doesn’t happen much in East Grinstead. A reader chimes in:

My mom told me recently she thought I should get a storage unit. I foolishly bit and asked why. She said because "you have so many books, and what if there’s a fire?" Because, as we know, things spontaneously combust all the time.

Well, you never know.

The latest. The question seems to be whether his inability to answer questions is a function of allegedly reading an al Qaeda training manual (no evidence has been brought that connects him to one), or whether he has been so traumatized by imprisonment that he cannot speak. This may not even be evidence of torture. It may be the consequence of years in a blacked-out isolation cell with no confidence that he would ever see a day in court. This is not merely a function of the sadism at Gitmo. It is a real problem across the U.S. prison system – a system that cries out for reform. Memo to the religious right: if you want to improve your reputation and follow Jesus, campaign for prison reform. It’s what Jesus really would do.

"We need to have a person of faith lead the country," – Mitt Romney, February 16, 2007.

"I don’t try to distinguish people based on their faith or lack of faith. Instead I look at what they’re contributing and supporting this great land and our citizens," – Mitt Romney, February 26, 2007.

It’s getting bad in Blighty – yes, good old secular Blighty. Money quote:

"We are witnessing a social phenomenon that is about fundamentalism," says Colin Slee, the Dean of Southwark. "Atheists like the Richard Dawkins of this world are just as fundamentalist as the people setting off bombs on the tube, the hardline settlers on the West Bank and the anti-gay bigots of the Church of England. Most of them would regard each other as destined to fry in hell.

"You have a triangle with fundamentalist secularists in one corner, fundamentalist faith people in another, and then the intelligent, thinking liberals of Anglicanism, Roman Catholicism, baptism, methodism, other faiths – and, indeed, thinking atheists – in the other corner. " says Slee. Why does he think the other two groups are so vociferous? "When there was a cold war, we knew who the enemy was. Now it could be anybody. From this feeling of vulnerability comes hysteria."

And from hysteria can come very dangerous governance.