Friday, March 11, 2016

"Migration fears not racist - Archbishop of Canterbury"

BBC: He recognised that some people had concerns about the pressure that new arrivals put on communities and services. The archbishop said: "There is a tendency to say 'those people are racist', which is just outrageous, absolutely outrageous.

"Fear is a valid emotion at a time of such colossal crisis.  "This is one of the greatest movements of people in human history. Just enormous. And to be anxious about that is very reasonable."

He said it was "really important" that fears were listened to, and resources put in place to address them. Archbishop Welby also described fear about what would happen if the UK left the EU or remained as a "valid emotion".

He adds: "I don't think there is one correct Christian view, one way or the other. You can't say 'God says you must vote this way or that way'."

Elsewhere... American devotion to religion is waning, according to new study 

Professor David Voas (UCL Institute of Education) said: “These declines aren’t happening fast, but the signs are now unmistakable. It has become clear that American religiosity has been declining for decades, and the decline is driven by the same dynamic of generational change that has driven religious decline across the developed world.” 

9 comments:

chickelit said...

Where has the Pope been on the European migration issue? I know where he stands on immigration in this hemisphere but I must have missed his defense (or not) of massive Muslim migration.

Dust Bunny Queen said...

"Fear is a valid emotion at a time of such colossal crisis. "This is one of the greatest movements of people in human history. Just enormous. And to be anxious about that is very reasonable."

And to be continually told that your fears are racist, stupid, shut up, get over it, vote for who we say you should, and by the way pay up with your taxes ...is not the way to calm the fearful.

The elites in Europe and the Elites in the US, the power brokers who look down on the low sloping foreheads, the bitter clingers dismiss our valid concerns at their own peril.

ricpic said...

Too little too late. Britain is lost. In large measure due to the pusillanimity of its leaders, secular and religious. Where was Archie when the Muslims were pouring in? Was he sounding the alarm then? God forbid. Wouldn't want to be sentenced to internal exile, wouldn't want to be labelled non-U by his U peers.

edutcher said...

The CofE finally wakes up.

Too bad all those years of PC generated so much rot.

deborah said...

Sow the wind, reap the whirlwind.

ricpic said...

OT - Hey Lem, did you ever give Synova those phrases in Spanish she was asking for to put in a thank you letter to some Spanish speaking lady who had helped her out? It's eatin' on me. So didya, huh, huh?

Chip Ahoy said...

Christian teaching is explicitly clear.

All of that teaching of the good news of the gospel applies to individuals and their relationship with deity. It says nothing about how nations must behave.

The plan is for individuals to carry the inspiration with them into governing positions. The teaching is for individuals within government (too) and not directed to nations.

The gospel flourished eventually in the Roman world because it was made state religion and that right there has nothing to do with the teaching.

See? They get their hands on it and wreck it right from the start. Jesus taught you need no intervening agency. You have direct contact with deity. He keeps saying that and man keeps translating it to earthly power.

Observers may see religion as they understand it in terms of church attendance and church influence diminish. (Trump poster yesterday is fine illustration because it's more pathetic than influential) I say nonsense. People all around are more spiritual than ever. As ever. They worship, idolize, adore, pay attention to, focus on, concentrate on, hone, whatever you may term it, otherwise than attending church. The paradigm of organized churches to personal religion is shifting. Religion is strong as ever. Say, for example, focusing one's attention entirely on the natural world and becoming spellbound by its unfathomable wonders and rejecting with extreme prejudice any iota of human experience that doesn't fit can be viewed as search for truth, beauty, and goodness -- a religion.

I had an insight at dinosaur ridge that went kapow and caused me to be unable to become cross even though I wanted to. They closed off the road that my brother and I had so much fun driving. For ecological concerns. After blasting revealed the dinosaur footprints under the oil shale. Kaboom blast now be very careful about erosion. I wanted to be cross. Then a guy a bike, a hipster you may call him, stopped and engaged me conversationally. He engaged me. Not t'other way 'round. I mentioned my disappointment in closing the very fun loop road that flips over the ridge. Splendid road to drive. Like the Alps for a second right there at Red Rocks. And he goes, "Yeah, I suppose it's good for future generations."

His god.

Part of his god. Maybe he's Christian. I don't know. I never know anything but I can tell you from sensing it no matter the spot, people are spiritual as ever. A place like Colorado Springs and environs may be a little bit different than most in the organizational sense. Also, try Taos. There ya go. There's my point right there. It's an energy center dontchaknow.

ricpic said...

You think the super-sensitives who hangout in Taos are spiritual? Really? They're super-snobs. That's all.

virgil xenophon said...

@ricpic/

One of my best female friends from college married one of my best male friends from same (an attny), then divorced him and married one of the richest businessmen in New Orleans, then divorced him and took the loot to Taos and opened up her own antique shop--"spiritual" of course.