This week we cover a range of subjects and questions:
The United Methodists defend biblical teaching – thanks to our African brothers and sisters. India and Pakistan fight over Kashmir and terrorism; The Politicians prepare to ditch Brexit
Why should take back Samima Begum but will struggle to do so. Listen to the whole cast on the link underneath.
We also look at:
The strange cases of Justin Smollett and the Detroit Transactivist demonstrate where the hate speech madness is taking us.
The sad case of Cardinal Pell.
And the madness of cultural gender dysphoria continues – Schools are to be compelled to teach SSM; Former evangelical Jayne Ozanne continues to mislead on conversion therapy.
A director of the Tavistock Transgender clinic resigns. A university in New South Wales orders complusory Trans training to ensure that the correct Queer Theory doctrine is enforced. University challenge on the BBC is told they should have gender neutral questions. The Ontario government passes a law which allows for children to be taken away from parents who don’t accept Transgender. And men should breastfeed!
US Democrats refuse to support bill banning infanticide.
Happy birthday to James Macmillan – Scotland’s greatest living composer….Here he is speaking about faith and music.
Finally – the story of the snake on a plane!
Quote of the week:
“On the whole, I do not find Christians, outside of the catacombs, sufficiently sensible of conditions … Why do people in church seem like cheerful, brainless tourists on a packaged tour of the Absolute? … Does anyone have the foggiest idea what sort of power we blithely invoke? Or, as I suspect, does no one believe a word of it? The churches are children playing on the floor with their chemistry sets, mixing up a batch of TNT to kill a Sunday morning. It is madness to wear ladies’ straw hats and velvet hats to church; we should all be wearing crash helmets. Ushers should issue life preservers and signal flares; they should lash us to our pews. For the sleeping god may wake someday and take offense, or the waking god may draw us to where we can never return.” Annie Dillard, Teaching a Stone to Talk: Expeditions and Encounters (New York: Harper & Row, 1982), pp. 40-41.
And we finish with death of Peter Tork
For those who are patrons I will be releasing a patrons only podcast this weekend – why not become a patron?
Catch up on last weeks here:
Thanks for all the info David, very good.
And don’t worry about the snakes in Australia too much, I’ve only had 2 in my yard in 30 years. A red bellied black and a python (someones escaped pet).
It’s the spiders that are the worry! (Funnel webs, Red Backs, White Tails, Trap Doors…).
The name is Tork.
I truly believe that you missed The Last Train to Clarkesville a long, long time ago.
Thanks…sorted….
In reference to the Cardinal Pell case there has been a number of articles critical of the decision, citing much evidence which was presented in both cases which give much food for thought. This article links to a handful of others, of which I find the one by Frank Brennan most compelling, as he is one of Australia’s most respected intellectuals, a human Rights lawyer of impeccable integrity, & one figure who spent a good deal of time actually in the courtroom during this trial:-
https://www.acountrypriest.com/the-wrongful-conviction-of-cardinal-pell/?fbclid=IwAR3pDPdm_-z90W7XjU-to6gU3BwNUAHqzUgz3unCnuHLvHwhVzwiLzVxdeA
Also, I concur with Linda Wemyss. It’s not the snakes, it’s the spiders. Well, at least in Sydney. They say the Taipan & the Western Brown are very aggressive for snakes, but they’re from the far north (Taipan) or far inland (Western Brown) so in Sydney it’s the spiders, especially the Funnel Web.
Being a ‘liberal’ clergyman or a ‘conservative’ clergyman is no protection from giving way to sexual temptation. The fact that a clergyman is a ‘conservative’ does not mean that it is impossible for him to rape people. So there is no way that it can be argued that Cardinal Pell cannot be guilty just because he is a ‘conservative’. But there are a number of things that need to be known about his case. One is that his most recent trial is, in fact, his second. At his first trial the jury voted 10-2 in favour of his innocence. But the verdict had to be unanimous so there had to be a second trial. A second thing that has to be pointed out that it is unlikely that any Reformed/Evangelical is going to be greatly acquainted with what goes on in a Catholic sacristy after Mass. But what goes on makes it highly unlikely that Cardinal Pell could have done anything without being seen. But let me just point people in the direction of a number of articles which question the ‘evidence’ which was put before the court to persuade the jury that he is guilty.
https://www.firstthings.com/web-exclusives/2019/02/the-pell-affair-australia-is-now-on-trial
http://www.ncregister.com/daily-news/calling-cardinal-pells-prosecution-what-it-is-religious-persecution
https://cruxnow.com/news-analysis/2019/02/27/vatican-contrast-on-pell-mccarrick-driven-by-doubt-about-guilt/
Finally, while David has every right in his Podcasts, and elsewhere, to refer to cases of sexual misconduct by Catholic clergymen (and he has done so on several occasions) let me provide a link to sexual abuse among American Baptist clergyman. I can’t recall David having referred to any cases like that, but I could be wrong.
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/02/13/opinion/southern-baptists-sexual-abuse.html
The article refers to ‘hundreds of sexual abusers who have worked within Southern Baptist churches over the last 20 years’.
Already done that…and also did a piece defending Catholic clergymen….a little too sensitive?