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Archive for the ‘Religion’ Category

The French have that lovely expression: “Plus ça change plus c’est la même chose”- The more things change, the more they stay the same and I suspect that that is the case with the election of Francois Hollande as the new French President. The truth is that for all the noises and echoes of the election trail, as things currently stand, there is little prospect of significant change.

None of the key elements have changed, the problems are the same and frankly as the UK Coalition Government knows, having power under these circumstances is a bit of a poisoned chalice, being in Opposition is safer. The only problem then of course as in the case of Mr Hollande, is when you stop being the Opposition and are now in power ! Alors ! Merde and other such words…

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I am not a great fan of Charles Moore but in this case, he wrote an excellent article on the question of faith in, let’s admit it, an English dimension and it is well worth reading, especially if you are English whether of faith or no faith at all.  http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9089041/To-defend-the-Churchs-role-istodefend-faith-as-a-whole.html

I would go beyond that and say that being able to write about any subject with an “English Dimension” openly is quite liberating in its own right, we have much to thank Alex Salmond and the SNP for, this side of the border. Because we English can now drop the mask of saying that we are “British”. Finally we can now be truly English without looking like some extremist from the EDF with hang ups, way to go Alex !

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Baroness Warsi who is leading a Government delegation to the Vatican to commemorate the 30^th anniversary of the re-establishment of full diplomatic representation between the UK and the Vatican, wrote an interesting article for the Telegraph: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/9080441/We-stand-side-by-side-with-the-Pope-in-fighting-for-faith.html

What she had to say was very sensible in that she was saying that Christianity should stand up proudly rather than be swamped by militant secularists. Her particularly good comment was: “…you cannot and should not extract these Christian foundations from the evolution of our nations any more than you can or should erase the spires from our landscapes.”

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For sheer arrogance and nonsense, it would be hard to beat this editorial in the Independent last Monday morning: http://www.independent.co.uk/opinion/leading-articles/leading-article-a-few-words-that-could-prove-a-revolutionary-moment-2140330.html

It had to have a response and it is sad I’m away for a few days because I’m sure that there will be lots of flack from other readers. However, N.B. Having returned from my travels, there was only one respondent and that of little comprehension, I couldn’t work out quite what they were trying to communicate in response to my comments but thought that in the end, they had ‘personal issues’ which seemingly are as yet, unresolved.

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It is both amusing if rather sad also that one only need put “Pope” somewhere in a headline to bring out a lot of lickspittle spite from those who are anti theist by default or those who consider themselves “far too intellectually smart”, no different whether in the reader’s columns of the Telegraph, Independent or Guardian.

I suppose my conclusion on these things is quite simple, the Pope must be doing something right to attract such mindless bile because the opposite of Love is not Hate, it is indifference.

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There was a story running today about potential “attacks on European cities” being foiled by UAVs – missile carrying drone aircraft taking out various targets in Afghanistan and likely, the Tribal Areas of Pakistan. What followed this article in the Telegraph were quite a number of readers comments that fairly rapidly built up over the day.

One comment which struck me quite forcefully was some idiot who quite out of ‘left field’ decided to post on his views of religion generally. What struck me was just how obnoxious militant atheists have become, I did not let it pass without comment…

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The aftermath of the Papal Visit is quite interesting on several levels and especially given the ‘trepidation’ that preceded it: Would the crowds turnout ? Would he be subject to constant and abusive protests from the “Protest the Pope” campaign ?

In the end whether just Catholics and the curious, massive crowds greeted him everywhere he went and the umbrella protest group, failed miserably in whatever aims, if any, they had and the ‘why’ might be worth examining, less to say “Ha, ha losers” but rather more to understand what it might indicate about the mood of the UK today.

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A news story on the BBC caught my attention concerning a “Gay Catholic Mass”: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11218791

With the upcoming visit of the Pope, it set me thinking around the issues concerning “Faith”, my own childhood and because I spent about 3 years as a doorman at a Gay bar, the position of Catholic Gays and specifically the English Catholic Dimension. Whilst to outsiders, I am sure that the Catholic Church seems both universal and monolithic, the reality is that the Church is highly diverse and the difference between nations and continents, can be quite marked.

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There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, the physicist and mathematician Professor Stephen Hawking has said: “It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the Universe going.”

One suspects that with a new book to push, being controversial is a way of attracting attention so: “Because there is a law such as gravity, the Universe can and will create itself from nothing. Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the Universe exists, why we exist.” All quite amusing and regardless of which side of the “God Debate” you are on.

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In common with most of the British Press reacting to the Pope visiting the UK in September and in his letter to the British Bishops, expressing his fears over British anti-discrimination laws that have already led to Catholic Adoption Agencies closing down or severing their links with the Catholic Church.

Of course and even in the Independent, the Anti-Catholic, anti-Jewish vote were much in evidence, the Pro-Faggot Lobby was out in force and just for the total intolerance and bigotry, the  Readers comments are worth a browse:

http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/home-news/anger-after-pope-slams-unjust-uk-equality-laws-1886589.html

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