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Hand of God v. Pope in the Bonfire

Today's papers herald this NASA image of a spinning star as the 'Hand of God' snapped stretching through the universe.

Good to know that he's taking some time out from causing Pope John Paul II to appear in bonfires.

Bad news for the Pope

Australians win the right to be annoying...

The JFS may have won but it can still change its mind

So the JFS has won its court case. The Judge decided that to rule against them would bring down the whole faith school network. He probably made the right decision.

But JFS has no cause for self congratulation. Its behaviour has been entirely wrong.

I'd better fill you in if you haven't been following the case.

JFS had been accused of racially discriminating against parents becuase it was willing to accept the children of Jewish born atheists but not those of observant parents where the mother had converted.

In the case of the Lightman family the mother had an Israeli conversion. She actually teaches at JFS and they are observant. Yet the school, using the Chief Rabbi's office to make the decision on Jewish status, has not accepted the conversion and therefore has not provided a place to the Lightman's daughter.

Legally they have been found to be within their rights. But just because it is legal, doesn't make the action correct.

The school is using large sums of public money. It should employ a generous and enlightened attitude to Jewish status, doing its best to provide places for observant Jewish families willing to attend.

To apply a small minded, nit picking, sectarian definition of Judaism is shameful in these circumstances.

These are very good people, trying their best to serve the community and doing spectacularly well at it most of the time but they have, I beg them to see, made a mistake.

It is their right to exclude families like the Lightmans and now they have established that it is their right. Can they not now allow compassion, common sense and generosity to prevail?

There is no point in prayer and religion if it doesn't allow for that, is there?

It's not too late.

EXCLUSIVE - Sharia plot exposed

A story in today's Times reveals that secret Government negotiations have taken place in Morocco to introduce Sharia in Britain.

The journalistic expose is the work of that well known chronicler Matthew Paris who cites senior parties to the negotiations as his source.

The talks were aimed at getting Shiite assistance to head off domestic unrest in Britain in exchange for a new legal framework.

Read the full astonishing story here.

Is the Archbishop really wringing his hands?

Think the Archbishop feels he's made a terrible mistake? You're wrong.

A fabulous piece by Ruth Gledhill in today's paper suggests that his apparent hang-wringing is actually cover for a self-assurance bordering on arrogrance.

Blogging the Archbishop - a roundup

--Libby Purves in Faith Central: Sharia in Britain? We think not...

--Ruth Gledhill in Articles of Faith: Has the Archbishop gone bonkers?

--Chris Dillow in Stumbling and Mumbling: Rowan Williams and Civil Society

--Iain Dale's Diary: Who will rid us of this idiotic priest?

--Matthew D'Ancona in Coffee House: A massive clerical error

--Heresy Corner: Woe is Rowan

Why the Archbishop is wrong about Sharia

The Archbishop of Canterbury is often hard to follow - by which I mean hard to comprehend. But when a sentence peeks through the fog and makes itself understood, I frequently find I disagree with him.

Not long ago I attended a lecture by him about freedom of expression and when asked to describe it later I said: "It was too obscure for me to know when to heckle."

I do not have the same difficulty with today's extraordinary remarks about Sharia law.

He has just told the BBC that the adoption of certain parts of Sharia law is "unavoidable". He believes that if we do not adopt it, there will be a tension between the cultural customs of parts of the community and the requirements of the state.

Well, first of all this adoption is not unavoidable in the literal sense - we can avoid it by not doing it.

What makes this country a liberal, peaceable democracy is that we all live under the same laws, we are equal citizens before the law.

As I argued in my column yesterday, this is a Christian country, even if (unbelievably) the Archbishop himself wishes it were not so. Everyone is entitled to worship any religion or none but this under British law and with due respect for the way that British traditions hold in public space.

Fortunately these traditions include remarkable tolerance for others, a welcome and interest in the practice of others and great generosity of spirit. But such values are not abstract one, conjured out of nowhere. They are rooted in this country's history and practice as a Christian nation.

There are any number of places in the world where people can live under Sharia law. This isn't one of them.

Nor should it be. 

Unintelligent views on intelligent design

Andrew Sullivan takes up my post on Governor Huckabee and adds a video where the candidate defends himself on evolution.

He does just fine for the first minute and a half or so, eliding his support for the theory of intelligent design and his belief in God.

Even then he's a bit confused. He says he doesn't know how we were created ("I wasn't there") just that God created us. In fact, intelligent design says the opposite. It says we do know how we were created, but not by who. But let that pass.

For around the two minute mark he goes further. He slips into "for goodness sake let's not have this guy's finger on the trigger" territory. Here's what he says:

But you know, if anyone wants to believe that they are the descendents of a primate they are certainly welcome to do it. I don't know how far they will march that back.

Erm, well I certainly want to believe that I am the descendant of a primate. My mother and father for instance.

The teddy bear sentence was not disproportionate

Have you noticed that word disproportionate?

It keeps popping up in relation to Gillian Gibbons and the teddy bear.

The Archbishop of Canterbury called her jail sentence:

"absurdly disproportionate response" to a "minor cultural faux pas".

while the Federation of Student Islamic Societies (Fosis), which represents more than 90,000 Muslim students in the UK and Ireland, said it was:

"deeply concerned" at what was a "gravely disproportionate" verdict.

Er, no.

It was not a misunderstanding of culture on the part of Gillian Gibbons. And the verdict was not disproportionate.

The arrest and imprisonment of this teacher was a political act, not a cultural or religious one. Its aim is not cultural preservation but terrorising the population. It is the classic move of a totalitarian state supported by a mob.

Why wasn't it disproportionate? This word implies that some sort of censure was required but that imprisonment was too much. The punishment wasn't out of proportion. It was unwarranted, outrageous, insupportable.

The use of the phrase "disproportionate" is offensive.

Do you think I am being insensitive about the sensibilities of the Sudanese government?

Too right I am.

Great Pope mystery deepens

The moment has come. Comment Central scoops the Daily Mail on one of its areas of great expertise.

Today's Daily Mail records the reappearance of Pope John Paul II....in a bonfire. The paper records that some are convinced that the flames photographed below show the silhouette of the late pontiff:

Service director Jarek Cielecki, a Polish priest and close friend of John Paul II, travelled to Poland after hearing an onlooker had photographed the image.

Father Cielecki said he was convinced the picture showed the former pontiff.

"You can see the image of a person in the flames and I think it is the servant of God, Pope John Paul II," he said.

But now, after minutes of painstaking research, Comment Central's Ludicrous Superstitious Nonsense Unit can reveal that the miracle was far greater than it seemed.

The Pope was not the only person who as the photographer said "had made many pilgramages during his life and was still making them in death". Paul McCartney, Elvis Presley and Jimmy Connors have all also appeared in the bonfire.

Wonder of wonders, miracle of miracles.