Tim Worstall

At Takimag.
On the advantages of temple prostitution, the use of sex as a form of worship.
Agape, that good natured Christian love of all is all very well in its place but there’s no reason to posit a Sky Fairy as a reason to practice it. Nor to purchase Cadillacs, fine houses, and private [...]

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Various lefties were all over the Pope when he said that capitalism needed taming, that ruthless self-interest just weren’t right. Appeals to authority even: look, distinguished churchman telling the neo-liberals the truth!
Benedict XVI claimed that legislation introduced by Labour to end discrimination “actually violates natural law” because it stopped worshippers [...]

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The astonishing efforts to lure away Anglican priests show that Pope Benedict is set on restoring the Roman imperium.
That’s Hans Kung that is.
And he seems just a tad dim here. For the Pope and the Catholic Church rather claim to be the one true apostolic church. It is therefore, by their own lights, their duty [...]

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This’ll be fun.
As many as 1,000 priests could quit the Church of England and thousands more may leave churches in America and Australia under bold proposals to welcome Anglicans to Rome.
Entire parishes and even dioceses could be tempted to defect after Pope Benedict XVI’s decision to offer a legal structure to Anglicans [...]

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So, a question.
The widow of Ferdinand Marcos disclosed last week that she is pushing her son Ferdinand Jr, 51, known as “Bongbong”, to stand for president next year.
…
He was educated at Worth, a Benedictine boarding school in West Sussex.
I remember, when I was at the prep school there, seeing the limo coming to [...]

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Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, has urged non-Muslims to fast for a day during Ramadan and then to break their fast at a mosque to improve their understanding of Islam.
Why not?
And we can then go on to where everyone has only one meal and no meat on Good Friday as with old Catholic tradition, [...]

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No, you don’t have to believe this. Yes, you can mock this all you like.
Until it sorts out in its own minds what exactly it is about homosexuality that offends it and is able to explain its reasons in intellectually rational, credible and convincing terms to outsiders, the church (all churches, actually) will continue to [...]

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Seem to be the Muslim Council of Britain:
Some Muslims have refused to use alcohol-based hand gels to combat the spread of swine flu because they claim it is against their religion.
Some of those employed by St Albans Council in Hertfordshire have complained about the antibacterial lotion, which is considered a key strategy in containing the [...]

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Churches should try harder to make bald and overweight people feel welcome, according to new guidance that is being issued to clergy.
A Church of England book published this week says they should be regarded as worshippers with “special needs” alongside the blind, the deaf, breast-feeding mothers, very short people and readers of tabloid newspapers.
Well, some [...]

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A new gameshow on Turkish television will pit rabbis, imams, monks and priests against each other in an attempt to convert sworn aetheists to their respective religions.
Quick, someone buy the rights.
I want to see Richard Dawkins as a contestant!

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After Marry and Joseph waz all “We’s gonna get marrieded, kthnx”, but befoor dey cood hav hankiez pankiez Mary was all preggarz from Teh Ceiling Cat.

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How could or should a Muslim indicate that they’re not planning jihad?

Perhaps I could carry a sandwichboard with the slogan "I ‘heart’ John Stuart Mill".

That would be one way to get locked up immediately by the current crowd, yes.

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In my early teens I did take part in a temple ritual-baptism for the dead-that involved my getting dunked thirty times in an afternoon, in a great circular baptismal font supported on the backs of twelve life-size bronze oxen, on behalf of the inhabitants of a seventeenth-century Bavarian village; but that’s another story entirely.

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But in any case I suspect the powers that be are, as usual, barking up the wrong tree. I mean, if you were an Islamist nutjob intent on martyring yourself for your brothers in Gaza or Kashmir, you would surely have to be exceptionally gullible to imagine that you were going to be rewarded with [...]

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Actually you know, it’s not half bad. The full text is here. I think you’d be hard put to find any Church of England bishop who would disagree with what is said (rather than the man who is saying it or his attitudes or actions outside this particular statement).
I think this line is actually very [...]

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In comments at the Vatican that are likely to provoke a furious reaction from homosexual groups, Benedict also warned that blurring the distinction between male and female could lead to the "self-destruction" of the human race.
In his address to the Curia, the Vatican’s central administration, he described behaviour beyond traditional heterosexual relations as "a destruction [...]

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But according to the Catholic Church and some Scottish politicians, singing the popular tune that begins with the words "You put your right hand in, your right hand out," may constitute an act of religious hatred.
A spokesman for the leader of the church in Scotland said the song had disturbing origins.
Critics claim that Puritans composed [...]

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The basic argument here is sure to make Polly spit with rage.
What makes a school successful is a shared ethos. This is possible in a purely secular manner but is much more difficult than in a faith based environment.
Seems logical enough….the various faiths have spent a thousand or two years in developing the accoutrements of [...]

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The Rt Rev John Broadhurst, Bishop of Fulham, claims most of the church’s assets once belonged to the Roman Catholic Church.
He says it would be "legalised theft" if the Church of England tried to keep buildings used by Anglo-Catholics who may defect to Rome after its [...]

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Harsh but fair. A comment explaining the real answer to the question "What Would Jesus Do"?
Not make it to 40.

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