The philosopher AC Graylinghas a bee in his bonnet about the use of the word "probably" in the atheist bus campaign's slogan, "There's probably no God - Now stop worrying and enjoy your life." He says if atheists should be required by the advertising watchdog to insert the modifier "probably" in their campaigns, then religious believers should be required to insert the modifier "allegedly" when they refer to supernatural beings. When, he asks, did the Advertising Standards Agency become a metaphysical authority?
Money quote: "There is something delicious about the thought of a functionary in an advertising agency doing ontology by arbitrating on the question of which fictional characters need a grey area of uncertainty around discussion of their existence - Little Red Riding Hood? Rumpelstiltskin? Santa? Betty Boop? Saint Veronica (who allegedly started out as sweat on a cloth and became a person)? Aphrodite? Wotan? Batman?"
In any case, says Grayling, parity of esteem should surely require that religious ads are similarly modified to avoid any "alleged" confusion. He plans to complain to the ASA and is encouraging others to join his letter-writing (or email-sending) campaign.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O'Connor's obituary for capitalism, delivered amid the art deco splendour of Claridge's in the heart of London's Mayfair, reminds Portwyne of the story told by a friend returning from a conference in Ashford Castle:
"An American fellow delegate asked her if she knew why there were so many clergy in the hotel. She replied that they were there attending a forum on Holy Poverty. The American replied, 'Gee, I'd sure like to be around when those guys are discussing clerical celibacy'."
An Anglican church in England has taken down a statue of the crucifixion because it apparently scared local children and visitors found it a turn-off. The Rev Ewen Souter, vicar at St John's Church in Horsham, West Sussex, said of the sculpture by Edward Bainbridge Copnall:
"The crucifix expressed suffering, torment, pain and anguish. It was a scary image, particularly for children. Parents didn't want to walk past it with their kids, because they found it so horrifying. It wasn't a suitable image for the outside of a church wanting to welcome worshippers. In fact, it was a real put-off. We're all about hope, encouragement and the joy of the Christian faith. We want to communicate good news, not bad news, so we need a more uplifting and inspiring symbol than execution on a cross."
I am taken by the last line of this comment: "we need a more uplifting and inspiring symbol than execution on a cross". Any suggestions or a replacement symbol?
Last month, the cardinal said, "Religious leaders are not normally economists, however, they cannot ignore the damaging human consequences of the rise and fall of economic indicators. Behind the gloomy headlines are cities, neighbourhoods, families, individuals deeply affected by the economic breakdown; and the hardest hit will be the poor: those already struggling to survive. Christians have a paramount concern for the poor. This "preferential option for the poor" is a constant theme in Catholic social teaching."
His most recent comments follow the attack on the government's anti-recession policy launched at Christmas by five Anglican bishops who said the New Labour stategy was "morally corrupt".
Baroness Mary Warnock, the distinguished philosopher who triggered a public debate about euthanasia last September when she argued that dementia patients should be permitted to opt for euthanasia if they become a burden to the NHS or their families, is to make the case for euthanasia in a public debate in Belfast on Monday evening. The debate organised by the Northern Ireland Ethics Forum will consider the motion "'This house believes that the right to medical assistance to die should be recognised".
Mary Warnock, pictured, a former Cambridge don and Girton College principal, has helped to reshape Britain's moral landscape for the past four decades in areas as diverse as educational reform and medical ethics. The Warnock Report of 1984 laid the foundation for today's legislation on human fertilisation and embryology.
Opposing the motion is Dr Idris Baker, a Consultant in Palliative Medicine at Tŷ Olwen in Swansea. Dr Baker trained in Cambridge, London and Leicester, among other places, and before taking up his present post in 2005 was Visiting Scholar at the Hastings Center in New York working on issues of capacity, advance decisions and proxy decision-making.
The public debate (admission free) begins at 7.30 pm at All Souls Church, Elmwood Avenue, in Belfast. Both speakers will address the gathering for 30 minutes, followed by questions from the floor and open debate, before a vote is taken. I will be in the chair, and we will be reporting on the event on Sunday Sequence on 11 January.
Every Catholic bishop, missionary society and religious congregation in Ireland is to be asked to sign a written commitment to implement agreed child protection guidelines in the wake of the recent very damaging report into the Diocese of Cloyne. Cardinal Seán Brady announced the move in a statement and offered to be the first bishop to sign the new commitment.
This response by the cardinal is a clear signal of his seriousness in dealing with this latest episode, but the response may raise yet more questions from child protection campaigners and victims and survivors groups. For example: Does this mean that bishops had not previously committed themselves to "implement all statutory guidelines and the agreed policy of the Bishops' Conference, the Irish Missionary Union and the Conference of Religious of Ireland"? And if they have already made that commitment, why would a re-statement of that commitment provide a strengthened guarantee of actual implementation in the light of the recent case?
Similarly, the cardinal acknowledges that "The findings of the recent report of the National Board into the handling of allegations by the Diocese of Cloyne have brought further anxiety to victims of abuse". He accepts that this report may cause many to question the efforts of those within the church working to ensure the safety of children. But beyond these comments, the statement says nothing more about the sanctions and penalties that could or should follow any bishop's failure to implement the guidelines and policies.
One thing is now clear, and this is fully accepted by Cardinal Brady: the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church has proved that it is able to conduct successful investigations and raise an alert when necessary.
Church leaders are often criticised for failing to give moral leadership on the real issues our society is facing. They are sometimes portrayed as colourless ecclesiastical automata repeating tired phrases from an out-of-print lexicon. If they are said to have any colour, it is typically "grey". They frequently appear lost in translation in the media age, so disconnected from the world around them that they should be offered weekly viewing of a Zeitgeist tape to bring them up to speed.
Not so the Archbishop of York, our Person of the Year 2008. Dr John Sentamu is a master of morally-charged gestures that regularly capture the public's imagination, and he is one of the UK's most outspoken public leaders. The Daily Telegraph was right to describe him as "a world-class showman who is divinely inspired."
It "ill-behoved" those who live in "bishops' palaces" to condemn government policies aiming at alleviating poverty. That's quite a stinging rebuke to the five bishops of the Church of England from the Member of Parliament who represents the church's interests in the Commons. Sir Stuart Bell, the Second Church Commissioner, says the bishops' comments on the government's credit crunch policy amount to "nonsense".
The ecclesiastical gloves are off. Nigel McCullough, the Bishop of Manchester, used his Christmas Day message to accuse the government of "scandalously encouraging" people to go into debt.
The bishops believe the government is failing to learn the lesson of the credit crunch -- the lesson being that a financial system based on indebtedness is doomed to collapse -- and are repeating the mistakes that produced the current collapse.
The Archbishop of Canterbury has already compared the government's anti-recession policy to an "addict returning to the drug".
If the length of an obituary is any sign of a person's cultural significance, Conor Cruise O'Brien must stand out as a massive intellectual figure nationally and intellectually. The many words written about him this weekend, from the Irish Times to the New York Times, make a case for the Cruiser as the greatest Irish public intellectual of his generation -- the Republic's Gore Vidal. We also learn that his full name was "Donal Conor David Dermot Donat Cruise O'Brien."
Sir Ian McKellen has been touring schools this month to talk to children about sexuality and homophobia. He says he's worried that faith schools in England may be perpetuating homophobic attitudes and that, as a consequence, children in those schools may be getting "a second-class education".
A senior Irish Catholic bishop who was private secretary to three popes is facing calls to resign following a highly critical report from an independent Catholic child protection watchdog.
The response by the diocese of Cloyne, and by its bishop, John Magee, pictured, to allegations of child sexual abuse involving serving priests is described as "ill advised, too little, and too late" by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church in Ireland.
Conor Cruise O'Brien was one of post-war Ireland's most significant (and, yes, controversial) public figures and intellectual forces. In this interview, he reflects on history as an academic discipline and as a personal passion.
