Of Gnats and Camels

A devout Christian (she is not, you will note, a militant Christian) is fighting for her right to exemplify her Saviour's teaching that the clothes are more than the body and the outer appearance a matter of greater import than the inner truth. Like the rich lady whose loudly rattling gift was so superior to the widow's quiet one, she considers the ostentatious display of her faith, and the respect of others for the engine of torture and mutilation which symbolises it, to be more important than going quietly about her duty of helping and healing others. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, and six other Pharisees have added their moral authority to the debate, noting that "apparent discrimination" (apparent? Don't they know? Have they got something in their eye?) against the ever-diminishing minority of churchgoers is "unacceptable in a civilised society". It has been apparent to many of us for some time that the rantings and gloatings of a failed first-century apocalyptic preacher are at best a dubious ethical proposition in a civilised society; but I am shocked that Lord Carey and his fellow conduits of the Divine Will should be ignorant of the Sermon on the Mount, where the proper attitude to persecution is set out rather explicitly.