I see the Anglican Church has announced its new policy on climate change and flood defences:
Floods are judgment on society, say bishops
By Jonathan Wynne-Jones, Sunday Telegraph
Last Updated: 11:50pm BST 30/06/2007The summer floods are God’s judgment on the immorality and greed of modern society, claim senior Church of England bishops.
Oh fuck me, not this old fucking chestnut again!
One, the Bishop of Carlisle, even said that the introduction of pro-gay laws had provoked God to send the storms that have left thousands homeless.
Thereby advancing quite the best argument in favour of the disestablishment of the Church of England that I’ve seen in quite some time – remember this fucking fr00tl00p gets a seat in the House of Lords by right of his office.
The bishops argued that while those affected are innocent victims, the flooding was a result of western civilisation’s decision to ignore biblical teaching. The Rt Rev Graham Dow, said that the floods were not only a result of a lack of respect for the planet, but also a judgment for decadence.
Said the man pictured in the Telegraph wearing a dress and several grand’s worth of bling.
“This is a strong and definite judgment because the world has been arrogant in going its own way,” he said. “We are reaping the consequences of our moral degradation, as well as the environmental damage that we have caused.”
No, its a bit of unseasonably shitty weather, you complete cunt, and all we’re reaping is the consequences of building shitloads of houses on fucking flood plains and not putting enough cash into flood defences and upgrading sewers, so unless god is a fucking major shareholder in a few water companies then this has got fuck all to do with your celestial skyfairy.
The Bishop of Liverpool, the Rt Rev James Jones, previously seen as a future Archbishop of Canterbury or York, said: “People no longer see natural disasters as an act of God. However, we are now reaping what we have sown. If we live in a profligate way then there are going to be consequences.” God is exposing us to the truth of what we have done.”
Huh?
So people DON’T see natural disasters as an ‘act of god’ but the fucker is still apparently ‘exposing us to the truth of what we have done’???
But if people don’t buy into the old ‘act of god’ scam, then there’s fuck all use is trying to tell them that the old bastard is behind all this shitty weather because no ones’s going to fucking well believe you anyway.
The man’s obviously a complete fucking moron.
The Bishops spoke as flood-hit communities were warned to expect up to two inches of rain – this weekend.
And presumably this pair of cunts are desperately chopping down trees in the North of England, right now, in order to build a fucking ark, right?
rofl. My thoughts exactly when I saw this story.
“In the Bible, institutional power is referred to as ‘the beast’, which sets itself up to control people and their morals. Our government has been playing the role of God in saying that people are free to act as they want,” he said…”
Well, I’m with the Bish on the characterization of institutional power as ‘the beast’ but as far as I can tell, the beast has been going round telling people they can’t have a fag, are drinking too much, and is getting ready to impose de facto marriages on anybody who is unwise enough to stay over once in a while.
Far from telling anybody that “people are free to act as they want” the Beast has set up millions of security cameras and is proposing a card-backed control system of where I go, who I see, what I eat and when I do it, all masquerading as taxation or green policies or public health or prevention of terrorism or any excuse to curtail my freedom.
Sometimes I think the only reason the Beast doesn’t liquidate me must be like that scene in Alien where the beast hisses at Ripley but doesn’t kill her because she is wanted alive – for the time being. Then I have a nice glass of cider and remember that politicians are just over-controlling bastards who are not actually evil, but are a long way up their own backsides.
In many respects the Beast seems to be doing exactly what the Bishop wants. Is he absolutely sure that he is working for the living God and not accidentally signed to the Prince of Darkness?
On checking online bookshops I found the Bishop Graham Dow does not just believe in the metaphorical existence of the beast. For him, the existence of bad spirits and witchcraft is a real thing. He has written a book about it, called ‘Deliverance’.
This means that he can and does accuse people of being witches or having inherited powers, as if this was a sensible thing. Now, the Satanic Panic has caused untold trouble this past 20 years but the only evidence so far of child abuse in this context is when primitive Christians get it in their noggins that a child is possessed.
To be properly scandalized at the dangerously idiotic beliefs of a senior cleric, and him inflicting these on vulnerable people who probably need to visit a shrink rather than his ‘healing ministry’, then read the sample chapter from his book ‘Deliverance’, pages 13-18.
Deliverance
http://tinyurl.com/2y48ah
If this had come from one of our battier sects, I would just be going ‘bah, humbug’. The world is full of people who believe silly things. But this is a responsible bishop of the Church of England. You’d have thought better would be expected.
Maybe it is something in the water up in Carlisle. The Bishop is not the only person who believes in ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties.
Bishop stands firm on
“Man will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest.” Denis Diderot,
Unity
I share your sentiments, but I’m worried about your blood pressure – calm down, man and have a good laugh at the bible-thumping wassocks!
This is the kind of inhumane shit you expect from the likes of the Westboro Baptist Church, not the Church of England, which makes me wonder whether the Torygraph has misquoted him, but if not, fuck the cunt.
I wondered what the Bish had to say about the South East Asian Tsunami with regard to God and found the following:
“The Bishop of Carlisle, the Right Reverend Graham Dow, added:
Speaking as an Anglican, I’m ashamed that the Bishop should have said such daft things. I’m sure Rowan Williams won’t be pleased either…
is he just annyoed that its the government who persecutes people rather than church – you know – the way it was in the good old days
If Rowan Williams is not pleased, then perhaps he should have said something some time ago.
This is Graham Dow’s letter contemplating the tsunami in February 2005.
http://tinyurl.com/2d8bfp
My take on this is that the Bishop holds that God is responsible for the Tsunami and moreover did it to impress the survivors and make it possible for smug gits to go about emoting all over the place.
Not my idea of what God is about, but then I’m not a bishop with degrees in theological justice. If I were God, I’d be suing for libel.
You may read it differently.
V Samuel: Thanks for the link to the Bishop’s statement on the Tsunami. He writes:
The world has always been difficult. We know enough geologically to understand the complexity of the earth
The water in the cut at Canal Street, Manchester rose by fully five feet since these Bishops called down their evil spirits. All we need now is for the “lost gays in the village” to cause a leak at the sewage works for them to be in a “cess pool of their own making”.
Halleluyah, Hallelujah, Hallelu …
Meanwhile Victorian scriptures provided the green light:
“All things bright and beautiful, all creatures great and small, all things wise and wonderful, the lord god loves them all.”
Except for fuckwit Bishops.
Nice to see some things never change – the Church is still the chosen career path for the stupider of those younger sons who don’t stand to inherit.
remember this fucking fr00tl00p gets a seat in the House of Lords by right of his office
the pedantry, it burns …
actually it’s not quite that. The Archbishes of Canterbury and York are Lords Spiritual by right of office, as are the Bishops of London, Durham and Winchester. The Bishop of Carlisle is a diocesan rather than suffragan bishop, and so has a shot at being in the House of Lords (the current one currently is), but only by appointment. In general, they pick the 21 most senior diocesan bishops and it would be quite unusual to do anything different, but no major constitutional issues would arise from chucking Graham Dow out, as they would if you wanted to get rid of the Bishop of Durham.
I’ll get me cassock.
Insurance companies still believe in acts of God when it makes sense to.
Insurance companies don’t believe in acts of god, they believe in not coughing up the cash if there’s the remotest possibility of getting out paying.
I agree with your sentiments on this; but as for the flood defences. The reason they are down this past year is the huge cock up on DEFRA farm payments.
Yet I see the Govt today has pledged another
“The West is also being punished for the way that it has exploited poorer nations in its pursuit of economic gain. “It has set up dominant economic structures that are built on greed and that keep other nations in a situation of dependence. The principle of God’s judgment on nations that have exploited other nations is all there in the Bible,” he said.”
Nice idea Bishop, but the countries that are worst affected by global warming and likely to be most affected in the next decade are mainly landlocked countries in Africa who are amongst the worst exploited countries getting the worst deal out of dominant economic structures built on greed. Try again!
“The Bishop of Carlisle is a diocesan rather than suffragan bishop, and so has a shot at being in the House of Lords (the current one currently is), but only by appointment.”
The current Bishop of Carlisle is not a member of the House of Lords, as far as I am aware. http://www.parliament.uk/directories/house_of_lords_information_office/house_of_lords_bishops.cfm has the current official list. I believe Carlisle is second in line to be allowed in the House, after Ely.
http://www.carlislediocese.org.uk/notices/viewnews/?subaction=showfull&id=1183963905&archive=&start_from=&ucat=10&
How fact and fiction seem to get muddled sometimes ….
Turns out this whole story is the work of a journalist who rang up and got a bishop to say some pretty orthodox things about God judging sin, and the consequences of human disregard for the environment, put them together with his unconnected but well-known (and equally orthodox) views on marriage and sexuality, and came up with some ludicrious nonsense which he then attributed to the bishop.
Hopefully the journalist concerned found the entertainment value worth it…. !