Without Natural Affection

The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, who is due to hang up his skirts in a couple of months, has had one last bash at demonstrating the wonders of a secular society. As Daveybloke the Cuddly Conservative cuddles up to gay people while vaunting Family Values (only to be accused of "hypocritical moralising" by Harriet Harman - an indignity on a par with having one's honour impugned by Gordon Brown), the Bishop told the Sabbath Torygraph: "We want to uphold the traditional teaching of the Bible. We believe that God has revealed his purpose about how we are made." It is not clear whether we in this instance means the entire Anglican Civil War, its God, its Saviour, its head the Queen, the dithering politician in Lambeth Palace, its archbishops, bishops, deacons, deaconesses, vicars, blue-rinsers and choirboys; or whether it just means Dr Michael Nazir-Ali and the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, a right-wing splinter group which has no doubt allied itself with the African and American sodomy-smashers in much the same spirit as Daveybloke has jumped into bed with the East European gay-bashers. In any case, people who do not believe that homosexuals are morally inferior human beings (somewhere between women and Muslims, I take it) "don't share the same faith" as the Bishop of Rochester and the FCA. "They are acting in a way that is not normative according to what God has revealed in the Bible", rather like people who don't believe in killing witches, stoning adulterers, or executing people for breaking the Sabbath. Dr Michael Nazir-Ali and his chums "don't want to exclude people", but there are some people who cannot in good conscience be put up with unless they "repent and be changed"; otherwise the privilege of having Dr Michael Nazir-Ali and his chums as co-religionists must regretfully be withdrawn. Besides wanting to cling to the traditional teaching of the Church, the Bishop also wants "a movement for renewal", though without the bother of any culture or trends. A "reformation of the Church and the life of the Communion", presumably in the image of Dr Michael Nazir-Ali and his chums, is recommended - doubtless in all humility.