Climate change - as bad a crime as Josef Fritzl?

This is the Bishop of Stafford. And today's burning question is "Why do they do it?" Why are Anglican bishops (in particular) so desperate to claw at public attention that they use the most extreme, inappropriate, tasteless analogies to make their point? In the whole history and literature of Christianity, is there nothing else they can draw on? Or are they compelled to leap on the bandwagon of the latest (preferably sexual) atrocity?

The Bishop, Gordon Mursell, wrote in a parish letter that people who don't confront global warming are almost "as guilty" as Josef Fritzl.  Who imprisoned his daughter for over twenty years, raped her repeatedly, bore damaged children by her and kept the lot in a cellar with insufficient air and no natural light.  His argument is that "future generations will be left in a futureless world" like the Fritzl prisoners, if we don't "face the truth" about manmade global warming.

He tried to row back a bit later, as The Times reports, saying it was just an "extreme form" of a selfish  philosophy of life: a philosophy common to Fritzl and to those who - I suppose - drive cars and don't recycle enough. But by his logic, the Church should be condemning as dreadful sinners all those past generations who left us ills from asbestosis to ill-designed housing and chemical pollution; not to mention all those Lord Bishops whose palaces cost a fortune while the poor starved in the streets....

Comments

[christina Speight]

Hasn't the Bishop bothered to find out that 31,000 scientists ,(9000 with PhDs) have denied man-made global warming and hasn't he caught up with the fact that global temperatures have been going gently down for the last 9 years?

And to use the criminally insane Fritzl as a weapon in his ignorant campaign is itself insane.

I think I understand King Henry II's plea "Who will rid me of this ignorant prelate?"

[John Richardson]

You're bang on with the question! Not sure about the answer, but how ironic it should happen in the same week as the bishops apparently question the competence and preaching of the clergy (see the article in the Telegraph).

[George Ball]

I couldn’t agree more.

Over population by humans is by far a greater threat to the planet than global warming and on this, religions would have more of us instead of fewer.

When a religion can no longer command fear, its leaders seem to descend to meaningless clap trap.

[Bill Peter]

The Bishop was quoted as saying; " I am simply trying to use an analogy."

What he meant was; I am simply trying to jump on a tabloid bandwagon to draw attention to my irrelevant beliefs.

[Sarah Gadd]

I do agree. Personally I think the church should confine its self to matters of religion and in that,finding ways to connect with other world faiths to reach some kind of world tolerance. Criticising people by using outrageous statements is merely headline grabbing and not at all constructive.

[Roger Angove]

I think you answered your own question Ms Purves, they are a discredited minority: "desperate to claw at public attention that they use the most extreme, inappropriate, tasteless analogies to make their point"

[Peter]

Why? Because the Christian religion is withering away, and with it their power amd prestige. They are desperate to keep the status quo and, like polititians in the same circumstances, will say anything to keep in the public view. They are going to end up about as important as Druids, and they know it.

[M]

This is why I don't go to Church, despite my strong Christian beliefs.

[TomMacFarlane]

"Josef Fritzl represents merely the most extreme form of a very common philosophy of life: I will do what makes me happy, and if that causes others to suffer, hard luck"

What's wrong with that statement, Libby? Seems a fair summary of where we are at, currently.

Rupert Murdoch/Fox News might disagree, of course.

The neoliberal agenda is predicated on the "F*** You Buddy" mode of discourse, so the Bishop - who dares to disagree - has to be subject to his own public pillory.

Carry on shopping!

[Roy Brown]

Isn't it a bit ripe for a bishop of the Church making pronouncements about global warming. After all, wasn't the Church just as guilty in ages past when they burnt all those witches and non-beliers at the stake causing the climate to warm up - not to speak of the carbon emmitions released. The words pot pan and black spring to mind.

[Kevin Coughlan]

As someone who should have a rather better grasp of theological issues than I have, surely he understands that the sin of omission has traditionally been regarded as carrying less culpability than the sin of commission?

[david clark]

When the CofE finds its own followers pay it no heed ,it then shouts simething absurd to attract attention...rather like a naughty 5 year old.

[Mark]

Although I agree that the analogy was wholly inappropriate, tastless and excessive, I don't think he used it to gain publicity. If he had wanted to court publicity he wouldn't have written it in a parish letter for goodness sake he would have written it in a press release. He tried to make a point, and made it incredibly badly, nothing more, nothing less.

[alannah cripps]

The Bishop should have known better.
He has indeed exposed himself as desparate for attention.
No wonder then that our churches are empty, people like him have no relevance in our lives

[ordinary parish priest]

and the bishops say they are unhappy with the quality of the clergy?

[Jeromy Bird]

When will society wake up? All religions are a man made concoction. The sooner we stop believing in any "god" the better we will all be. This is the 21st century - religion is redundant!

[Stuart]

The man tried to make a point (in a parish newsletter, so the suggestion that he was after attention is itself simply childish and amateur) but did it badly. His meaning is a just and relevant one. We all say things that are misinterperated. The difference here is that it has been made by somebody in a position of influence. If the slip was made by Libby Purves, or another journalist, nobody would bat an eyelid.

[Ed Freshwater]

As bad a crime? Well, if God considers all sin as equally disgusting, then yes, it is as bad.

And being as his comment about selfish behaviour was in the same article, it's not rowing back, it's expanding the point.

This is the most ludicrously ignorant and self-seeking post I've seen from you; a real pity.

[Stephen]

At the last census 300,000 people put their religion down as Jedi, somehow I think at the 20011 census somewhat more people will put down their religion as Jedi than put Church of England and it will be church leaders like Gordon Mursell who will be responsible.

[Sean O'Donnel]

In the grand scheme of things, Fritzl's crime was small fry compared to the earth shattering crime of global warming by humanity.

[Peter Bolt]

Anyone who has made a career out of Bronze Age superstition is more or less capable of anything.
After 7/11 in the USA a letter was published in the local free newspaper by one of the local Vicars saying it was deserved and was God`s warning. I really am not exaggerating. In case no one believes me it was in the Redditch Advertiser.

[Father Ignatius Brown]

So he's a suffragan bishop - but does that really mean we have to suffer his asinine comments?

Guess we shouldn't expect anything more intelligent from someone who can't hold down a proper job and so spends his days pedaling a form of opiate for the masses that is devoid of any real science.

[Julian]

A lot of people seem to have missed the point here, Libby included. The bishop wasn't playing down the seriousness of Fritzl's monstrous crimes: he was was saying that we need to take the consequences of our actions MORE seriously, because of the effect they will have on others. That's a valuable point. Might the ubiquitous religion-bashers have thought a little more carefully before piling in with their tedious, predictable invective? Or is thinking first not their style?

[Rev Norman Hamilton]

Oh dear - as a Christian minister (Presbyterian) such comments come close to leaving me me high and dry too in terms of credibility....

[GARRY SOUTHERN]

ACTUALLY I HAD COME TO A CONCLSUION THAT ISNT THAT FAR FROM THE BISHOPS RATHER OTT ANALOGY... THAT ALL THOSE WHO DENY ANY SUGGESTION OF CLIMATE CHANGE( IE NOT THOSE WHO ARE SCEPTICAL BUT SENSIBLY ALLOW FOR THE POSSIBILITY) SHOULD BE PUT IN OLD FASHIONED STOCKS BY THE WATERSIDE THAT CHILDREN WHOSE FUTURE HAS QUITE POSSIBLY BEEN SERIOUSLY DEVALUED BY IGNORANCE, GREED AND SUBLIME IGNORANCE( PLEASE TRY READING THE SHORT HISTORY OF PORGRESS FOR ALL THOSE WHO ASSUME WE ARE UNDULY SPECIAL AND SMART) CAN PELT THEM WITH THE ODD MOULDY EGG ON THE WAY TO SCHOOL AND THEN WHEN THE RISING WATERS IN ALL PROBABILITY LAP UP AGAINST THEM THEY CAN DO THEIR CANUTE VARIATION AND REFER TO THE SMALL PERCENTAGE OF NAYSAYERS WHO IN MODERN DEMOCRACIES GET EVEN TIME WITH THE VAST BULK OF OPINION