From: Richard Ridge (richard_ridge@tao-group.com)
Date: Tue Jan 08 2002 - 05:14:47 MST
And so, we come to the farcical time when the Prime Minister is asked to
appoint a new Archbishop of Canterbury. We bid a fond farewell to George
Carey - the Archbishop who did so much for the cause of atheism and presided
(in a very real sense) over the loss of 20% of Church attendance and the
decline of the state church (in a very real sense) to the position of a
minority sect. Sadly, we are unable to be so certain of the incompetence of
his successor, so let me introduce you to the charming individual who may
well replace Carey: The Right Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester, a
man who believes the basic duty of marriage is to act as a baby factory and
who has attacked childless couples as being 'self indulgent and incomplete.'
Naturally, Ali is not the only candidate and no decision has been made. He
is, however, the only candidate to have been born in Pakistan as a Shi'a
Muslim, and the only one who will allow the Prime Minister to demonstrate
how multicultural he is for making the appointment (this is the sort of
moral expediency with which the Prime Minister normally conducts his
affairs, so I fail to see any reason why this should be any different).
Given that Ali is the sort of moral conservative who makes the Pope look
like a liberal, Mr Blair may well have cause to regret his appointment of an
Ayatollah of Canterbury. Another reason why Ali might succeed is the
competition; the Bishop of London Richard Chartres was notoriously opposed
to the ordination of women priests. Which just isn't very New Labour. We
shall see.
This archive was generated by hypermail 2.1.5 : Wed Sep 25 2002 - 13:28:38 MDT