“It’s a very badly-drawn religious satire…”… Read the rest
All entries by this author
Well thinking
Jun 14th, 2011 3:51 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh honestly. Not good enough.
Ten years ago, the BBC was always telling us how bloody marvellous the euro was. Now – for reasons I can’t quite fathom – it’s assisted suicide.
Really? Can’t fathom? Well try harder.
It’s really not that difficult. Something is going to kill us – you, me, all of us. We don’t know what it will be. We do know it could be slow and horrible. We’re afraid of that. Some of us would like to know we (and others who want it) have the option of cutting it short; knowing that would relieve one of the fears.
Now can you fathom it? I’ll tell you what I can’t fathom: I can’t fathom why … Read the rest
The impartial Christian Institute
Jun 14th, 2011 12:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonOh I love it when people with an agenda accuse other people of bias.
A BBC film on assisted suicide was “biased”, critics have said.
Care Not Killing campaigners said Choosing to Die, which shows a British man with motor neurone disease dying, was “pro-assisted suicide propaganda loosely dressed up as a documentary”.
And the ex-Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir Ali, said it “glorified
suicide”.…
The Bishop of Exeter, the Right Reverend Michael Langrish, said he wanted to see “much more emphasis put on supporting people in living, than assisting them in dying”.
Oh well then – ! If Care Not Killing campaigners and a bishop say it’s propaganda, well, they certainly are unimpeachable authorities on how to … Read the rest
The science of seeing what you want to see
Jun 14th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe weapons we need to defend scientific objectivity are themselves social practices, Kenan Malik points out.… Read the rest
Christian Institute calls BBC one-sided
Jun 14th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonYes really.… Read the rest
Critics accuse Pratchett documentary of “bias”
Jun 14th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCare Not Killing campaigners and bishops line up to find bias in others.… Read the rest
Nick Clarke on Terry Pratchett and assisted suicide
Jun 14th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThose who would declare, on religious grounds, that life is not ours to take under any circumstances have a lot of work to do.… Read the rest
Terry Pratchett on assisted suicide documentary
Jun 14th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia Benson“Do you still believe you were right to show it?” They do.… Read the rest
Sunshine and oranges
Jun 13th, 2011 5:27 pm | By Ophelia BensonRemember: religion makes people nicer.
… Read the restOn treacherous building sites little boys were flogged if they slowed down, carrying loads of bricks up the scaffolding, lime burns lacerating their legs, hands blistered and cut. This was not Dickensian England; this was Australia and it was happening until 1970.
…
In 1946, at the age of 10, Hennessey was sent from an orphanage in England to the brutal Bindoon Boys Town in Western Australia….
”The brothers and sisters were all together,” he says. ”And then they started grabbing the girls away from their brothers. I can still hear the screams of these kids being separated. Some of them never saw their sisters again. I still have nightmares.”
Life at Bindoon, run
Define “mainstream”
Jun 13th, 2011 12:19 pm | By Ophelia BensonThey’re still doing it…
The Independent’s first paragraph:
Britain’s largest mainstream Muslim organisation will today call for “robust action” to combat Islamophobic attacks amid fears of growing violence and under-reporting of hate crimes.
You already know what that organization is, right? And it is: it’s the MCB. But what is “mainstream” about the MCB? It is, notoriously, reactionary and male-dominated. More genuinely “mainstream” Muslims don’t consider it mainstream at all, and fume at the media habit of calling it mainstream and treating it as mainstream.
… Read the restTaji Mustafa, spokesman for Hizb ut-Tahrir in Britain, said: “Xenophobic attacks on Muslims have increased under successive governments. In a manipulative alliance with some sections of the media, they have demonised Islam as part
Gay Girl in Damascus hoaxer is named
Jun 13th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonHe’s Tom MacMaster, a married, 40-year-old American grad student at Edinburgh University.… Read the rest
Australia: Christian Brothers tortured children
Jun 13th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonLife at Bindoon, run by the Christian Brothers, was a catalogue of cruelty, where beatings and sexual assaults were daily events.… Read the rest
Religious orders say they will co-operate with inquiry
Jun 13th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonSisters of Mercy, Charity, and Good Shepherd will co-operate with future inquiries into horrible cruelty. You do the irony.… Read the rest
Ruse offers to help
Jun 12th, 2011 4:02 pm | By Ophelia BensonIt takes more than one person to argue with Michael Ruse. Jerry has, Russell has, but I still found new stuff that irritates me, so here it is.
… Read the rest…science tells us that Adam and Eve are fictions. That Saint Paul or Uncle Tom Cobley and all thought otherwise is irrelevant. They were wrong. This is not to say that they were stupid or careless. Two thousand years ago, for a Jew to believe in Adam and Eve was perfectly sensible. But time moves on and with it our understanding of the world around us, and old beliefs have to give way to new ones. Aristotle thought that some people were born to be slaves. He was wrong.
Cleaner removes ‘face of Jesus’ from Wiltshire church
Jun 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonCleaner removes a blob of dripped wax, at least.… Read the rest
Nick Cohen on M F Husain and censorship
Jun 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIndia’s founders included in the Indian penal code the crime of “insulting religion” because they believed that censorship could promote national unity.… Read the rest
Archbish reminded that no one voted for him, either
Jun 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonIf he doesn’t want elected officials doing things people didn’t vote for, can we assume he’ll be giving up his seat in the House of Lords?… Read the rest
Boston archdiocese cancels “All Are Welcome” mass
Jun 12th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonBecause, of course, all are not welcome. Amen.… Read the rest
Afghanistan’s women can make a difference
Jun 11th, 2011 | Filed by Ophelia BensonThe concern of most of the women in this country is that if the coalition pulls out, the gains women have made will be wrenched away.… Read the rest
Quel horrible surprise
Jun 11th, 2011 4:28 pm | By Ophelia BensonI just accidentally learned, via a post of Eric’s, that George Pitcher last autumn got a job as public relations flack for the archbishop of Canterbury. I’m amazed. I’m shaken to my core. My Weltanschauung is all anyhow. I have to rethink everything I thought I knew.
One thing I thought I knew was that Rowan Williams is a scholarly, gentlemanly sort of fella, however mistaken about everything. But he can’t be, since he hired or consented to the hiring of a vulgar abusive hack like George Pitcher.
Remember him? Remember him in May of last year, when Evan Harris lost his seat?
… Read the restA stranger to principle, Harris has coat-tailed some of the most vulnerable and