Who persecutes believers? Other believers
CHRISTIANS are the religious group that suffers most from persecution on account of faith, Pope Benedict XVI argues in his message for Word Peace Day. And when it comes to perpetrating that persecution, religious fundamentalism and secularism amount to pretty much the same thing, he adds. As someone who defends religious liberty precisely on account [...]
Terry Eagleton: tragic humanism and the far left
UNITARIANISM must surely be the most laid-back denomination in contemporary Protestantism. As far as I understand the rules, even not being a Christian is no barrier to signing up. Meanwhile, those aware of the social geography of north London appreciate that Stoke Newington is the instantiation of all things Bohemian and middle class. Put the [...]
Benedict XVI: Antichrist, or just a bit confused?
THE DESIGNATION Whore of Babylon does not refer to some mythical top notch super-dirty-in- bed Iraqi chick, but to a serious theological debate over the identity to the scarlet-clad woman described in chapter 17 of the Book of Revelation. In the faith community in which I was raised, my poor old mum was always considered [...]
The left and atheism: reply to Ed West
TERRY Eagleton famously remarked that reading Richard Dawkins on theology is like someone holding forth on biology whose only knowledge of the subject is the Book of British Birds. Whichever side of the God debate one lines up on, such criticism is entirely fair. It is rightly a convention in philosophical discussion that a proposition [...]
Wherever they burn books: the politics of desecrating the Qu’ran
HEINRICH Heine’s famous aphorism has it that ‘wherever they burn books they will also, in the end, burn human beings’. But because those words are a classic soundbite and not a literal truth, there remains in a liberal democracy the right to burn books. Dove World Outreach Center – a tiny hardline Pentecostal sect in Gainsville, [...]
Book review: ‘We Don’t do God’ by John Burton and Eileen McCabe
RELIGION is all very well until it starts to interfere with your everyday life, at which point it really is time to give it up. That, according to the Terry Eagleton wisecrack, summarises the typical modern English person’s attitude to matters of faith. For most liberal-minded folk, religion is akin to sexuality, or perhaps a [...]
In defence of cliterodectomophobia: the left, secularism and religion
OVER 90% of women in some African countries have undergone female genital mutilation, with religion the primary justification advanced by the perpetrators. Do you object to this? What are you, some sort of cliterodectomophobe or something? Beware, comrade. You are on the slippery slope to ritual child sacrificeophobia, that reductio ad absurdum of the arrogant [...]
Benedict XVI arrest: Catholicism is above the law
HOT gospel preachers I heard as a boy growing up in a hardline Protestant denomination regularly used to speculate on whether or not the Pope was the Antichrist. I think the verdict was not proven, although the onus rested firmly on the Vatican to establish innocence. In fairness to Benedict XVI, branding him the Whore [...]
Jos massacres: the case for secularism
IF YOU are even momentarily persuaded by the crazily mendacious thesis that ‘secular fundamentalists are the new totalitarians’, reflect for a moment or two on why 500 people were slaughtered in Nigeria over the weekend. The victims were Christians, those who hacked them to pieces with machetes were Muslims, and it’s a safe bet that [...]
So what if he’s a Holocaust denier? At least he’s not gay
ANY RELIGIOUS tradition sufficiently Froot Loop to ordain Sinead O’Connor as a Bishop just has to be a couple of beads short of a full rosary. Nothing compares 2 that, you could say. Nevertheless, I have to admit that the former Trotskyist in me retains a certain voyeuristic fascination for what is known as Traditionalist [...]
