Merry Christmas, everyone.
Hark, the Herald Angels Sing
1
Silent Night
Have yourself a bland little Christmas
Stephen Harper’s Christmas message didn’t mention the miraculous appearance of God in history or Mary or Joseph or the shepherds or the wise men or the angels or the star… well, you get the idea.
Instead, he sputtered on about jobs, growth, “gathering” while looking backwards and forwards, Canada’s economy and the government. At least he wished us “Merry Christmas.”
Next year he should try this:
Ricky Gervais tries to be funny by picking an easy target
From here:
Ricky Gervais has become a target for Christian outraged by his views on religion.
The unapologetic atheist is being targeted on Twitter by a host of believers who have taken offence at his view.
The Office creator, 50, has often spoken of his lack of faith, but his appearance on the cover of New Humanist magazine in a Jesus Christ-style pose has pushed a few over the edge.
For the shot, he uses a microphone stand for his cross, dons a crown of thorns and has the word ‘atheist’ daubed across his chest in blood red.
Like most atheists, Ricky Gervais is arrogant, egocentric, not as rational as he would like us to think and not particularly original or outrageous. If he were, he would have dressed up as Mohammed eating a pork chop swilled down with Johnny Walker.
It would be better for Christians to ignore the little twerp than be offended by him.
Away in a Manger
Giving birth in a burqa
From here:
A Muslim man who punched a nurse for trying to remove his wife’s burqa during childbirth has been jailed in France.
Nassim Mimoune, 24, had already been expelled from the delivery room for branding the midwife a ‘rapist’ as she carried out an intimate examination of his wife.
Then through a window he spotted the nurse taking off his wife’s burqa as she prepared to give birth.
He smashed open the locked door and hit the woman in the face, demanding she replace the full Islamic face veil.
It takes a peculiar logic – Islamic logic, I suppose – to insist that a woman’s face be covered while her nether regions are being aired.
Dangerous Bible wielding Christians arrested in Calgary
From here:
CALGARY — A controversial street preacher and some of his followers have become enmeshed in another feud with city hall, after they were arrested Tuesday for trespassing following a short-lived prayer circle in the atrium of the Municipal Building.
[….]
Church members were escorted out by police, but then returned in an attempt to speak to Mayor Naheed Nenshi.
That’s when six people were arrested for trespassing, which carries a $287 fine. All were released and issued court summonses.
I’m sure I speak for us all when I say that I sleep easier at night in the sure knowledge that Municipal Buildings will remain prayer–free zones thanks to the unyielding vigilance of our intrepid constabulary.
Jimmy Carter wishes Kim Jong-il’s successor every success
The odious peanut farmer from Georgia, having tired of denouncing Israel for apartheid, has sought a balm for his sensibilities in the roseate ambience of North Korea, whose practices appear to meet his full approval since he wishes their new dictator every success in their continuance.
Is Carter barking mad? Of course he is.
From here:
Former President Jimmy Carter has sent North Korea a message of condolence over the death of Kim Jong-il and wished “every success” to the man expected to take over as dictator, according to the communist country’s state-run news agency.
A dispatch from the Korean Central News Agency (KCNA) said Mr. Carter sent the message to Kim Jong-un, Kim Jong-il’s son and heir apparent.
“In the message Jimmy Carter extended condolences to Kim Jong Un and the Korean people over the demise of leader Kim Jong Il. He wished Kim Jong Un every success as he assumes his new responsibility of leadership, looking forward to another visit to [North Korea] in the future,” the KCNA dispatch read.
Yet more Prophetic Social Justice Making
This time from the Diocese of Toronto which is busy “consolidating” churches and wants to turf a daycare out of one of them so it can be sold “tenant-free”.
It sounds like the action of a profiteering capitalist landlord to me. Where are those occupiers when you really need them.
From here:
In its eagerness to combine four south Scarborough churches into one, the Anglican Diocese of Toronto is inconveniencing another local institution, a daycare.
That, at least, is how employees and parents with children at St. Crispin’s in Cliffside see it.
Church services at the red brick building on Craiglee Drive ceased this fall, and in July a letter informed the non-profit, parent-run daycare it would have to leave by Dec. 31.
Its management found a new home for the children at Highway Gospel Church on Midland Avenue, but municipal permits are taking longer than expected.
Several times, board members have asked the diocese for another month.
“They adamantly said no,” daycare supervisor Debbie Humphreys said this week, “because they want to sell this place tenant-free.”
The parents are aware an offer has been made for the property of the former St. Crispin’s.
[….]
“I’m surprised they would rather have it vacant than help us out,” said Julie Leiper, a board member who added parents have been told the daycare, which has seven employees, will temporarily close Jan. 1 and be “kind of homeless for a while.”
Occupiers write 666 on St. Paul’s
From here:
St Paul’s Cathedral has been ‘desecrated’ by the anti-capitalist protesters camped in its churchyard, the High Court heard yesterday.
Nicholas Cottam, the cathedral registrar, said graffiti vandals had attacked the 300-year-old building several times during the two-month occupation.
On one occasion they scrawled the ‘blasphemous sign 666’ – which represents the devil – on one of the famous pillars at the front of the cathedral.
[….]
He added that there were a number of clergy and staff at the cathedral who were ‘inspired’ by the message of the protest.
Which part of the “message of the protest” managed to “inspire” the clergy, I wonder?
Were the clergy inspired by the “666”? Is one of them the Antichrist?
It seems that you can desecrate, defecate in and deface the cathedral not just with impunity but with inspiration, so long as it’s all done in the name of anti-capitalism.
And the Church of England can’t understand why no-one takes it seriously.