A kiss too far

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In its never ending quest to sell more sweaters, Benetton, purveyor of gaudy sartorial accessories to the masses, thinks that global love is the secret to bigger profits:

At this moment in history, so full of major upheavals and equally large hopes, we have decided, through this campaign, to give widespread visibility to an ideal notion of tolerance and invite the citizens of every country to reflect on how hatred arises particularly from fear of ‘the other’ and of what is unfamiliar to us. Ours is a universal campaign, using instruments such as the internet, the world of social media, and artistic imagination, and it is unique, in that it calls the citizens of the world to action.

This slightly modified photo of the Pope snogging an Egyptian Imam has, surprise surprise, upset the Vatican. Obviously, Benetton is not anticipating selling many sweaters to Catholics or Muslims.

 

It’s all, ostensibly, a part of promoting the Unhate Foundation which was:

founded by the Benetton Group, [and] seeks to contribute to the creation of a new culture of tolerance, to combat hatred, building on Benetton’s underpinning values. It is another important step in the group’s social responsibility strategy: not a cosmetic exercise, but a contribution that will have a real impact on the international community, especially through the vehicle of communication, which can reach social players in different areas.

As is usually the case when someone is determined to promote tolerance, the means used are seen as intolerable by the majority of those subjected to them. The difference in this case is that much reviled capitalism is acting as a corrective. Benetton’s stock is taking a nosedive:

 

 

 

The cuddly Osama

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From here:

Here’s how the new head of al-Qaeda remembers Osama bin Laden: A sensitive man who cried when his friends lost family members, remained close to his children despite the hard life of an international jihadist, and fondly remembered — by name — the 19 men who carried out the deadliest terrorist attack ever on U.S. soil.

[…..]

“People don’t know that this man was tender, gentle, kind, with refined feelings, even when life was hard,” al-Zawahri said, wearing a white robe and turban and sitting in front of a green curtain. “We never saw a man like him.”

And while we’re at it, let’s not forget that Hitler slept with his dead sister’s teddy bear, Stalin sung in the choir at theological school, and Mao Tse-Tung was a poet and calligrapher.

Another church in trouble for helping those with unwanted same-sex attraction

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A church which offers to help people with unwanted same-sex attraction is being criticised by gay groups because people, apparently, are born gay.

From here:

Gay rights campaigners have condemned a church for running sessions to ‘cure’ people of homosexuality.

The Frontline Church in Liverpool claims homosexuality is caused by ‘pain in childhood’ and boasts it’s L.I.F.E sessions have ‘succeeded’ with some congregation members.

[…….]

The national Lesbian and Gay Foundation’s Andrew Gilliver said: ‘The issues about “childhood pain” are nonsense.

‘The pain is often caused by people who don’t understand what they’re going through.

‘We are born gay, but we learn prejudice. This is Dark Ages stuff.’

Someone should tell Chris Birch, a rugby player who woke up after a stroke and decided he was gay, that it’s impossible because, to be gay, you have to be born gay.

When 19-stone rugby player Chris Birch suffered a stroke during a freak training accident, his family feared it would be a life-changing injury.

Yet while his recovery certainly brought about a transformation, it seems to have been in a way no one could have expected.

For when he regained consciousness, the 26-year-old – who was engaged to his girlfriend – claimed he had become gay.

 

Rowan Williams confuses the steps of St. Paul’s with Tiananmen Square

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In 1989 millions of people gathered in Tiananmen Square to protest their totalitarian government and demand democracy. China’s military responded with guns and tanks killing hundreds of people in what became known as the Massacre in Tiananmen Square. Local hospitals filled with the wounded and dying and these images became iconic:

 

 

The occupiers of the steps of St. Paul’s took advantage of the fact that they already live in a democracy to broadcast their outrage at the recently discovered abomination that some people are paid a lot and others aren’t. Not only was no-one was shot at by police, but sympathetic clergy persuaded the police to leave, providing a tacit invitation for the protesters to stay – which they did.

There is as much similarity between these two events as there is between the first world war and a teddy bears’ picnic. That’s not the way Rowan Williams sees it, though:

He added that St Paul’s had become “a theatre” in which conflicts were played out and urban landscapes were often the scenes of defining, dramatic moments in history, citing Tiananmen Square, Cairo and Athens as examples.

The only conflict being played out in the theatre of St. Paul’s is the one between muddled clergy who can’t decide whether it’s better to promote social justice by letting the step squatters stay, or whether prophetic social justice making is served more deeply by collecting the £20,000 daily from visitors who are slightly more well heeled than the churls presently impeding their entrance.

A new target for the Occupiers

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Michael Moore’s multi-million dollar house:


Not only could protesters demand that he give back the fortune he has made using capitalism to deride capitalism, they could also demand he donate his underpants to be used as tents.

From here:

It’s no secret that Moore has made millions from his muckraking documentaries, and there’s no reason he shouldn’t have. As one of the most successful documentary film-makers ever, he’s successfully tapped a rich vein of anti-capitalist rhetoric that sells well among U.S. liberals.

What puts Moore in the Gore camp is his refusal to admit he shares the wealth of his targets, as if wealth and success in themselves are dishonourable. In an interview with CNN’s Piers Morgan he quails when asked to admit “the bleeding obvious”, i.e. that he’s a member of the 1%.

“How can I be in the 1%?” Moore responds. “Even though I do well, I don’t associate myself with those who do well. I am devoting my life to those who have less and have been crapped on by the system.”

The Church of England continues to ponder what ails society

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And continues to get it wrong. This time it’s the archbishop of York, John Sentamu, who tells us that inequality, specifically income inequality, has caused, among other things, violence, drug abuse, “self-harm” and mental illness.

Why does a church whose prescription for alleviating humanity’s angst ought to be spiritual, centred on personal sin and redemption through Christ, peddle materialistic leftist twaddle instead?

Is it ashamed of its own Gospel? Has it replaced the message of salvation with the message of social engineering?

What is particularly risible about John Sentamu’s faith in equality, is that only totalitarianism can make people equal: in practice, equally miserable, squalid, impoverished, brutalised and hellish.

Read it all here:

Drug abuse and violence are rife. Mental illness seems to have become more common, not simply better recognised, over the last generation or so. Rates of self-harm among teenage girls are also high and seem to be increasing. Personal debt has hit a record high.

So what has gone wrong? What has caused the loss of paradise? David Cameron said two years ago: “Research by Richard Wilkinson and Kate Pickett, in The Spirit Level, has shown that among the richest countries, it’s the more unequal ones that do worse according to almost every quality of life indicator.”

 

 

The Immanent Dawkins

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From the Android Market:

Finally, the wit, passion and intellect of the author of “The God Delusion,” “The Greatest Show on Earth,” is available right at your fingertips.

With the Richard Dawkins App you’ll have access to the latest news, audio, tweets and even HD video all within one app.

Never before has there been a Richard Dawkins app, and this is will be one you’ll surely love.

This is the application I have been waiting for: since I have an Android tablet, I will be able to take Dawkins with me wherever I go. I’m so excited. I think I’ll have to break out in song:

What a friend we have in Dawkins,
All our doubts with him to share.
What a privilege to carry
Disbelief to Dawk in prayer.

There, that feels better.

 

Pick up your tent and walk

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The Rev. Graham Taylor has a truly radical idea for the St. Paul’s occupiers, based on the Bible verse that seems to have escaped the attention of other ecclesiastical potentates from the Church of England: 2 Thessalonians 3:10.

Graham Taylor is a successful author of children’s books (well, some adults including me like them, too), including his best known book, Shadowmancer; funnily enough, he’s always had to work for a living.

From here:

It is damnable that such a good man as Graham Knowles should be forced out by a crisis on the church steps which has the sole purpose of hijacking the media spotlight. Is there no one in the Church brave enough to say what most of the right-minded people in this country really feel about those surrounding our nations foremost church?

The Church should have realised that any offer of help to the anti-capitalists would have been used against them. If the protesters were people of honour, they would have thanked the Dean for his hospitality and moved on. St Paul’s Chapter should have been firm from the start, robust in its message and united in its determination for law and order.

I believe that the message of Jesus to the protesters would be to tell them to pick up their tents and walk – get a job – for the worker is worth his keep and not to be kept on state benefits. Much of what Jesus taught was tough love. It was about sacrifice, community and commitment.

His call to the protesters would be to put the time they spend sitting in their tents working for those who are really in need. If they are truly concerned about the economic crisis, then they should be contributing with hard work instead of hard talk. Their idle words should be translated into care for those around them.

In these difficult financial times, it is very easy to blame the bankers and financiers for all our financial woes. They have become the demonic enemy to be cast out of the City.

Yet, this dispute isn’t about the poor; it is an attack by a motivated liberalati on the way in which we live in this country. It is an attack not on our financial institutions but on our way of life. I have to ask those protesting about poverty why don’t they go and sweep the streets of the housing estates or clean up the mess still left over from the riots? After all, that is what Jesus would do.