Anglican vicar turns from terrorism to eco-agitation

From here:

PederickTHE priest at the forefront of the Anglican Church’s push to dump millions of dollars in fossil fuel investments on ethical grounds was also responsible for the most ­notorious act of terrorism on Australian soil.

Evan Pederick was the only man convicted over the 1978 bombing of Sydney’s Hilton Hotel, which killed three people.

Today, Father Pederick heads a parish in the southern Perth suburb of Cannington and has been the driving force of the church’s sell-off of holdings in coal, oil and gas companies.

At last month’s annual synod of the Anglican Diocese of Perth, Father Pederick successfully ­argued for the divestment of fossil fuels.

[…]

Father Pederick came forward and confessed to the bombing in 1989 and was ultimately jailed for 13½ years (he would serve 8½) after being convicted of three murders and conspiracy to murder. His alleged co-conspirator, Tim Anderson, was in 1990 sentenced to 14 years’ jail.

Supreme Court judge Michael Grove said Mr Anderson had been “brainwashed” by the Ananda Marga cult when he instigated the bombing. Seven months later, he was acquitted.

What strikes me about this isn’t so much that Evan Pederick was a terrorist – in the article he acknowledges that he is “a sinful human being” and presumably has repented of his sin – but that he appears unduly susceptible to brainwashing. First by the Ananda Marga cult, a pile of nonsense so transparently bogus that it is astonishing that anyone could fall for it, and secondly by the Fossil Fuel Divestment cult, a pile of nonsense so transparently bogus that… well, you know the rest.