Abracadabrah

I create as I speak

Turning The Other Cheek Right Into A Big Fist

"It is not patriotism when you say, 'My country right or wrong,'" [Cindy] said. "Because our country is very wrong now."

Well, it looks like Cindy has managed to convince someone after all. Or maybe it was Galloway.

Bishops want to apologise for Iraq war

BISHOPS of the Church of England want all Britain’s Christian leaders to get together in public to say sorry for the war in Iraq and its aftermath.

Now wait for this line, because it's unbelievable.

The bishops cite as precedents the official statements by the Vatican expressing sorrow for the Christian persecution of the Jewish people throughout the ages...

Yes. Fighting Saddam is just like the Christian persecution of the Jewish people throughout the ages. That attitude must also explain the reason several Anglican bishops are so keen lately to disinvest from Israel.

Bishop Harries, the Church’s leading apologist for the Christian just-war theory, says: “The Churches have a particular message here based on biblical insights about fear and how playing on the fears of enemies makes for unwise policies.” He goes on to argue that to many people, it is not terrorism but American foreign policy and expansionism that constitute “the major threat to peace”.

Sounds eerily like this: "our two countries are the biggest rogue states in the world today. And it is therefore vitally important...that those who oppose the crimes of our governments, on both sides of the Atlantic, link hands, link arms, stand shoulder to shoulder, until we've rid the world of George W. Bush and Anthony Blair, once and for all." Thus spake Galloway during the recent Hitchens-Galloway debate.

Of course, he's a demagogue and a friend of fascists.

So, then it is strange that it is Mr. Galloway, rather than Bishop Harries, who had the decency to include Britain in his indictment. Allowing his country to be counted as an actor for its own acts. Instead of exculpating Britain and blaming everything on the US.

Melanie Phillips has more here. Marcus at Harry's Place points out -- thank God -- that there is another religious view, at least in Scotland. According to Church of Scotland Moderator [Scotland's most senior churchman], Rev David Lacy: "Those who believed it was Christian to "turn the other cheek" to such extremism were misunderstanding the Gospel message."

Heh! John Knox would be proud! Or, at least, minimally prouder!

Norm Geras includes an email from a reader who has read the full report and concludes that the report it has received in the Press simplifies its criticisms and understresses some of its more sensible points. The entire proposal is viewable here.

posted by Alcibiades @ 9:19 PM