Thursday 27 October 2011

Occupy St Paul's: Friend Or Foe

Revd Giles Fraser, Chancellor of St Paul's Cathedral, resigned today because of the church's plans to evict Occupy London protesters camped outside.
Being a thoroughly modern vicar Giles announced it on Twitter.
"It is with great regret and sadness that I have handed in my notice at St Paul's Cathedral."
He told The Guardian; "I cannot support using violence to ask people to clear off the land. It is not about my sympathies or what I believe about the camp. I support the right to protest and in a perfect world we could have negotiated. But our legal advice was that this would have implied consent... The church cannot answer peaceful protest with violence."
Fagburn likes Giles Fraser.
Amongst his many good works, he is the founder and president of Inclusive Church;
"We call on our Church to live out the promise of the Gospel; to celebrate the diverse gifts of all members of the body of Christ; and in the ordering of our common life to open the ministries of deacon, priest and bishop to those so called to serve by God, regardless of their sex, race or sexual orientation."
(He's straight, since you're wondering).
Giles is a regular contributor to The Guardian.
Here is a piece on the Church of England and gay marriage; 500 Years Of Intolerance.
Of course not all his fellow churchmen agree with Giles Fraser.
On The Daily Mail's website Revd Peter Mullen writes; "The Bishop of London is quite right to say that the protesters should move on. It is a pity that he did not add the admonition to both them and to his Dean and Canons to grow up."
Revd Peter Mullen writes a lot for The Daily Mail, and is the Mail's go-to guy when they want a stupid quote from a reactionary cleric.
How reactionary?
In 2008, Mullen blogged;
"Let us make it obligatory for homosexuals to have their backsides tattooed with the slogan SODOMY CAN SERIOUSLY DAMAGE YOUR HEALTH.
"In addition, the obscene 'gay pride' parades and carnivals should be banned for they give rise to passive corruption, comparable to passive smoking. Young people forced to witness these excrescences are corrupted by them."
Which was nice.
Who do you think Jesus would support?

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