Tough Love

Since his god has recently seen fit to kill three hundred men, women and children, and to injure and make homeless thousands more, our thoughts and prayers must of course be with the fisher of men who has used his Christmas message to attack the evils of secularism. The Church in Australia faces persecution even unto being denied permission to hire and fire employees on the whims of a megalomaniacal Bronze Age djinn, and an inquisitorial tribunal on priestly indiscretions has even recommended breaking the seal of confession to help prevent, of all things, the suffering of little children. It is no doubt a great tragedy when an archbishop must yet again overrule the Saviour's commandment at Matthew 5 xi-xii; but clearly the need for love and service, liberally understood and discreetly supplied, must take precedence over such merely spiritual matters.