Archbishop 'showing signs of Christianity' shock

UPDATE - Times and Seasons visitors, welcome. I think Adam wants you to see the picture at the bottom of this post.


In a radical departure from orthodox Church of England doctrine, Rasputin has laid aside his concern for Fairtrade chocolate, the oppression of gay clergy, third world debt, the G8 summit, domestic violence and proactively reaching out to broad sections of the community on a multidisciplinary basis while empowering a cross-section of service providers, and addressed himself to the Sixth Commandment.

Writing in the Sunday Times, he points out that "it is impossible to regard abortion as anything other than the deliberate termination of a human life".

Alas the word 'kill' is conspicuous by its absence, and the Mad Monk spends the next three paragraphs reassuring nervous types that "the idea that raising the issues here is the first step towards a theocratic tyranny or a capitulation to some neanderthal Christian right is alarmist nonsense".

But great oaks, little acorns etc.

In the same paper, my bete noir Rod Liddle continues his 180 degree switch and seems determined to corner the market in political incorrectness, this week taking a pop at nutters and headcases, otherwise known as those with "mental health issues". I'm still trying to work out if his radical switch from Guardianista par excellence as the editor of Radio 4's "Today" programme, to a chap who presents documentaries about the 'Immigration Time-bomb', is a road to Damascus job or whether he's a careerist who can sense the way the wind's blowing.

(For amusement, the complaints at the NAAR site exhibit a well worn feature of the immigration debate. "I welcome a full and honest debate. But not with people I disagree with".)

Finally, the wonderful and fragrant Church of England cleric Joanna Jepson has lost her case against the medics who killed a baby on the grounds of its cleft palate.

Apparently there were some 50 deaths a year (source unknown and probably in the 'one in four a domestic violence victim' category) through illegal abortion pre-1967. To prevent this putative evil, 1,365 babies were killed after 22 weeks (the approximate age at which a baby becomes, with medical help, viable outside the womb) last year. And another 180,000 before then, of course. Per year. Five million or so since 1967.

The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere
The ceremony of innocence is drowned;