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Fourteen bishops of the Church of England have condemned Dominic Cummings for driving his little son and sick wife to Country Durham where they could be cared for if his wife turned out to have Covid 19. She did and so did Mr Cummings.
Yet no bishop said a word about the Prime Minister becoming father to a child born out of wedlock a few weeks ago, while married until a few days earlier to a woman whom he had deserted.
Not even journalists who dislike Mr Johnson a great deal, and they really really do, so much as mentioned it. Only the Indian press mentioned the divorce and they did so because Mrs Johnson is half Indian.
The reality behind the attack on Mr Cummings is that it is an attack on Brexit, for which many filmgoers and others think he was responsible. Perhaps he was too. This is why bishops should be very careful before getting involved in politics, but they prefer talking about politics to talking about sin.
Yet no bishop said a word about the Prime Minister becoming father to a child born out of wedlock a few weeks ago, while married until a few days earlier to a woman whom he had deserted.
Not even journalists who dislike Mr Johnson a great deal, and they really really do, so much as mentioned it. Only the Indian press mentioned the divorce and they did so because Mrs Johnson is half Indian.
The reality behind the attack on Mr Cummings is that it is an attack on Brexit, for which many filmgoers and others think he was responsible. Perhaps he was too. This is why bishops should be very careful before getting involved in politics, but they prefer talking about politics to talking about sin.
You'd have thought the deaths from Covid 19 would have led to sermons about the four last things (death, judgment, hell and heaven, in case you'd forgotten). I am not in England but I doubt if there were many sermons on this theme.
The left-wing but pro-Brexit clergyman-journalist the Rev Giles Fraser says the bishops are treating Mr Cummings in a most un-Christian way.
The left-wing but pro-Brexit clergyman-journalist the Rev Giles Fraser says the bishops are treating Mr Cummings in a most un-Christian way.
The UK has had loads of time to get used to Boris slinging his bits around, having kids out of wedlock, having kids he ignores, and having kids he doesn't even acknowledge. It is distasteful and sets a bad example, but at least he has had the courtesy and self-awareness not to lecture others about fatherhood.
ReplyDeleteDominic Cummings flouted a law he himself put in place. Plenty of people who agreed with him on Brexit took umbrage over this.
I am sure the bishops have had a lot to say about mortality, caring for one another, and strength in trying times.
The thing is he didn't break the letter of the rules, as the Attorney General acting in a quasi-judicial capacity has said. Which should clearly be the end if the matter. Nor did he break the spirit of the rules. What he did was right and common sense but my countrymen have been acting very strangely since the virus arrived on their shorest.
DeleteI think all the Anglican bishops and probably the Catholic ones opposed Brexit as clearly the Pope did, though he did not say so in as many words.
DeleteTheresa May said yesterday that she thinks he did not abide by the spirit of the rules. Even if he did not, what he did did no harm, did much good and was within the rules.
DeleteThis is why bishops should be very careful before getting involved in politics, but they prefer talking about politics to talking about sin.
ReplyDeleteTo talk about sin would imply a belief in God. Are there any bishops in the Church of England who believe in God?
There are clergymen who don't but I think the bishops do. Don Cupitt was an atheist but not a bishop. Spong is an American. The old Bishop ot Woolwich of "Honest to God" fame recovered his faith.
DeleteBishop Holloway, the retired Primus of the Scottish Episcopalian Church, is an atheist.
Deletehttps://order-order.com/2020/05/29/bias-analysed-96-8-of-maitlis-tweets-anti-boris/
ReplyDelete'Let me be clear. I have no love in my heart for Dominic Cummings. I have never met him. And while his politics do align with mine in some respects, I don’t expect we would get on. Moreover, I don’t buy all of his story.
ReplyDelete'Nonetheless, I can perfectly understand why a desperate parent would drive to the other end of the country to make provision for the care of his child. And the anger now directed towards him is out of all proportion to the severity of his offence. Those who shout at him outside his home, hound him in the streets with glee; the collective pile-on; the viciousness of the public hatred directed towards him — here lies the far deeper moral failing. And a society that is content to see this happen even to its pantomime villains is weakening its resistance against public hatred being directed against the innocent.'
Rev Giles Fraser in Unherd https://unherd.com/2020/05/theres-nothing-brave-about-the-bullying-bishops/
'Today, the bishops seem a bit too much like health and safety officers, agonising over public compliance. It all feels a long way from a man hanging on a cross.'
ReplyDeletePeter Hitchens dislikes Dominic Cummings but thinks he should not resign. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/debate/article-8372985/amp/PETER-HITCHENS-Sack-Dominic-Cummings-want-LONGER-lockdown.html
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