The Anglican Journal, in its print edition, is carrying the “Bishop sues Blogger for Defamation” story (page 12), but has made an interesting change to the online article.
The online Journal article correctly says this:
The bishop is seeking $400,000 in damages as well as legal costs. The suit also seeks “an interim and a permanent injunction requiring the defendant and any Internet service provider or host sites to remove or cause to be removed the web site found at www.anglicansamizdat.net and any and all defamatory material that the defendant has posted or caused to be posted anywhere else on the internet; an interim and permanent injunction prohibiting the defendant from publishing or causing to be published any further comment about the plaintiff.”
That is what is in the statement of claim. Since the complained of items comprise about 1% of all posts on Anglican Samizdat, by seeking an injunction to shut down the entire blog, the statement of claim is clearly attempting to stifle my charter guaranteed right of freedom of expression.
The print version conveniently leaves out: [t]he suit also seeks “an interim and a permanent injunction requiring the defendant and any Internet service provider or host sites to remove or cause to be removed the web site found at www.anglicansamizdat.net and, by doing so, erroneously implies that the bishop is merely seeking removal of the 31 posts in dispute:
The bishop is seeking $400,000 in damages as well as legal costs and the removal of all the defamatory material posted.—Leigh Anne Williams.
And, of course, at this point the material is only allegedly defamatory.
I can hardly put into words the level of contempt I reserve for the bishop’s actions. But fortunately I do not need to. The Epistle of Jude contains a ringing dis-endorsement of such people, and portrays their eventual ruin with graphic detail.
The faux humility and soft ecclesiastical tones; the photo opportunities; the comfort and aid given to homosexuals and every other off-the-beaten path group; the disrespect shown to God’s Word – and beaten together and sprinkled with a toothy smile – such disguises the bitter after-taste of malice and cruelty.
The hypocrisy is so monumental one staggers. Even supposing, (for sake of argument), that such claimants to high ecclesiastical office were good men and the allegations were true, is there no heed to the Apostle Paul’s words who condemned litigation against spiritual brethren: “Why not rather be defrauded?”
There is an old chestnut that says:
“Where ever God erects a house of prayer,
The devil builds a chapel there,
And t’will be found upon examination,
The latter has the larger congregation.”
It is a comfort to know that, contrary to the above, the devil’s congregation of half-baked paganism in Christian garb is fast declining.
Thank you Jason.
I re-read Jude in my KJV ,and then in The Message.
The King James Revised Version reads:
“But these speak evil of what ever they do not know; and what ever they know naturally, like BRUTE BEASTS, in these things they corrupt themselves.” Verse 8
Mr .Peterson writes it:
“This is exactly the same program as these latest INFILTRATORS: Dirty sex, rule and rulers thrown out, glory dragged in the mud.”
Brute beasts who have infiltrated Christ’s church at ACoC and they drag glory in the mud.
How difficult I find it to pray for him and others. I can only pray, “God, save them!”
If it goes to court they will decide if you are guilty of defaming the bishop. There you could lose but all you lose is money. Christ will one day stand in judgement and He was as good as it gets at knowing the motivation behind our actions. I would rather be in your shoes than the bishop. What you have tried to do with your blog through satire and humour is defend the Gospel. The bishop’s actions speak for themselves. One day he will stand before Christ and his actions and motivation will be judged fairly. I fear he may stand to lose something worth much more than money.
Sounds like even the Anglican Journal is ashamed of what the bishop demanded. Although not ashamed enough to condemn it; only ashamed enough to try to cover it up. Because printed stuff gets archived, and historians might find it!
A quick calculation yields a rate of $13,900 per post. Wow! Mr. Bird must think you are a very influential blogger.
Prepare for an influx of curious Anglican Journal readers! Perhaps you should role out the red carpet for them!
By the way, did you see the Quote of the Day on page 10? Courtesy of Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori, and apparently used to dismiss a TEC congregation following Eucharist: “Get up! Get out! Get lost!”
Hello Joy
Would you be able to post a link to the Schori comments? I would be interested in seeing it for myself.
Thanks
AMP
The link to the Anglican Journal print edition is in David’s original posting. Then just scroll down to p10.