Tim Worstall

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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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. [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 [...]

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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 governing body voted to bring in women bishops [...]

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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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In his radio show, Mr Dobson accused the Democratic presidential nominee of twisting Biblical passages like Leviticus, which Mr Obama said suggests slavery is acceptable and eating shellfish is an abomination. Hmmmm 11:9 These shall ye eat of all that are in the waters: whatsoever hath fins and scales in the waters, in the seas, [...]

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Seems a little odd that you’re not allowed to tell the truth on the streets of Britain today. The boy, who is described only as a minor, was taking part in a demonstration outside the church’s central London headquarters on May 10 when City of London Police officers ordered him to remove the placard. It [...]

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The Knights of Malta have just chosen another Englishman to succeed Fra. Andrew Bertie as Grand Master. As I’ve said before, Bertie was at Worth when I ws in the prep school there. Used to walk down to breakfast from his lodgings past the dorms, singing th Lord’s Prayer in Arabic: always, but always, five [...]

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Here.

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Our Basil is laughing quietly to himself: Roman Catholics have overtaken Anglicans as the country’s dominant religious group. More people attend Mass every Sunday than worship with the Church of England, figures seen by The Sunday Telegraph show. This means that the established Church has lost its place as the nation’s most popular Christian denomination [...]

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Interesting, don’t you think? Over here, someone not revealing his religion because he thought it meant he would not get elected. In the US, just about the only person who couldn’t get elected would be the person who said he had no religion at all.

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