tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post6640036992430697521..comments2024-03-27T16:39:43.522+00:00Comments on Liberal England: AntidisestablishmentarianismJonathan Calderhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00730157683743989696noreply@blogger.comBlogger10125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-73146035905442717722009-02-16T16:15:00.000+00:002009-02-16T16:15:00.000+00:00"And anyone who believes the poisonous arm of Chri..."And anyone who believes the poisonous arm of Christianity isn't already a threat should see what happens when a previously normal and rational friend falls under the influence of the Alpha Project."<BR/><BR/>Exactly what poison are you referring to? The fact that your friend now has hope? <BR/><BR/>You make it sound like Christianity is a source of evil. That's only true if the Bible is twisted by misinterpretation. If you actually read the teachings of Christ without a clouded judgement made by your personal experiences of 'Christians' you would see it's based on love, sacrifice, and selflessness - attributes that are rare in today's society. I beleive this is due to moving away from Christian morals, but of course you will disagree. <BR/><BR/>I do agree that the established church is crippling to evangelism, but also that it is a catastrohpe.<BR/><BR/>Did you ever stop to think WHY effective/evangelistic Chrsitians try and even die (yes, Chrsitian martyrdom exists today) to tell you about the salvation Christ offers? Do you think it's because they want you to join their CLUB or because they might be genuinely concerned of where you're going after you die?<BR/><BR/>I'm not worried about persecution, Jesus said it would happen after all. However, the mind boggles sometimes as to how people can be so offended by evangelical Christians trying to show them full life and save them from hell.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-25367817745685646302008-06-09T20:46:00.000+01:002008-06-09T20:46:00.000+01:00I think your etymology is stronger than your theol...I think your etymology is stronger than your theology.<BR/><BR/>The spam police had a long discussion about this one. :-)Jonathan Calderhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/00730157683743989696noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-72757062038080617342008-06-09T06:51:00.000+01:002008-06-09T06:51:00.000+01:00I agree with Tristan, antidisestablishmentarianism...I agree with Tristan, antidisestablishmentarianism is the longest word that "most people are able to recite"... although it is not the longest.. Floccinaucinihilipilification is considered the longest word.. and there are even longer ones but they are just words created to try to be big.. and really don't count.<BR/><BR/>(I did a video on this <A HREF="http://www.hotforwords.com/2007/07/02/floccinaucinihilipilification-huh/" REL="nofollow">Floccinaucinihilipilification</A> and one on <A HREF="http://www.hotforwords.com/2007/11/27/antidisestablishmentarianism/" REL="nofollow">antidisestablishmentarianism</A>)<BR/><BR/>As for separation of church and state.. probably a good thing as you don't want laws passed by a particular religion that you may not agree with.. for example.. perhaps your religion does not allow you to drink water.. that would not be a good thing, right?<BR/><BR/>Marina<BR/>www.hotforwords.comHotForWordshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09308786894128935935noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-16204981315288219252008-02-23T18:54:00.000+00:002008-02-23T18:54:00.000+00:00While this argument may once have held water, I th...While this argument may once have held water, I think recent events cast much doubt on it.<BR/><BR/>The government, in its zeal for multiculturalism, has been giving more and more credance to religious leaders of all stripes, and yes that includes the crazies. This leads to a spiral of claimed privilege and the crazy situation where there is a real chance of religions (probably all religions) getting exemptions from laws to which everyone else must adhere (from animal welfare to equality). More and more of the school system is handed over to their indoctrination, letting creationism in through the back door. Those Bishops in the House of Lords block widely supported legislation.<BR/><BR/>The defence against this is government neutrality in matters of religion, and that means disestablishment. While there is an established church which seeks privelges for itself and now for all religions, the situation is just going to get worse. Neutrality, the secular state, tells all religions that they have to obey the same rules as other bodies and will be treated fairly.<BR/><BR/>You worry about evangelicals coming out of the woodwork, but I'd rather have them where I can see them than quietly controlling schools and amending curriculae, worming their way through the innocuous C of E and claiming its harmless status for themselves. Religious fundamentalism is an emerging fact of life. Better to confront it and take a hard but fair line, rather than desperately ignoring it and papering over the cracks.Pejarhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/11396736251336284413noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-92040840075366047182008-02-22T19:21:00.000+00:002008-02-22T19:21:00.000+00:00Fucking manly word, manfarang. I raise my bottle o...Fucking manly word, manfarang. I raise my bottle of cider to it.asquithhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/14246701347539264295noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-33208414401883540582008-02-22T10:56:00.000+00:002008-02-22T10:56:00.000+00:00We agree on a lot things here, from the desirabili...We agree on a lot things here, from the desirability of church architecture to the undesirability of radical evangelism, but disagree utterly on the central point of this piece (although the idea of a 'National Religion Service' is at the same time amusing, sharp and very apt).<BR/><BR/>The problem that disestablishment of the Church solves is, simply, that it would mean the Church was no longer established. And that, to me, is a good enough argument on its own. The idea that there should an official state church is to me as self-evidently barmy as Arsenal being the officially-favoured state football club and as harmful as the Tories (or us, or anyone else) being the officially-favoured state political party.<BR/><BR/>Citing what the loopiest Christians might do in response doesn't hold water, I'm afraid: it's all very well being scared of what the neighbourhood dragon would do if it ever came out of its cave and rampaged across the countryside - that doesn't make deterring it by quietly feeding it a local virgin once a month a morally acceptable policy.<BR/><BR/>And anyone who believes the poisonous arm of Christianity isn't already a threat should see what happens when a previously normal and rational friend falls under the influence of the Alpha Project.<BR/><BR/>I was going to end there, but mentioning Alpha made me think of another reason for disestablishment: it would remove the attractiveness of the Church as a host to parasitic organisms like Alpha, which is spreading so perniciously precisely because there is a nationally-sanctioned structure for it to infest and work through. As the Labour Party found out during its problems with the Militant Tendency, once a structure starts to creak with age and disuse - or, more accurately, to retain a largely passive member base who retain a strong residual affection for its past glories - it's ripe for infiltration by people with a bit of energy and a lot of agenda.<BR/><BR/>Still, the Blessed Tony saved us from Militant, perhaps he can be drafted in to save the Church of England too? Oh - wait. Perhaps not.Andyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10519766252522983800noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-74971801011473000752008-02-22T09:29:00.000+00:002008-02-22T09:29:00.000+00:00Its certainly debatable whether its the longest wo...Its certainly debatable whether its the longest word in the English language...<BR/>Floccinaucinihilipilification is found in most dictionaries. It was coined but goes back to 1741 at least.<BR/><BR/>There are other words longer, but they were either coined to be the longest word are a joke word by Aristophanes translated into English or a chemical name (189,200 characters).Tristanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15395992764678278326noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-41697232266016887012008-02-22T06:10:00.000+00:002008-02-22T06:10:00.000+00:00You sound like an-Ornicopytheobiblopsychocrystarro...You sound like an-<BR/>Ornicopytheobiblopsychocrystarroscioaerogenethliometeoroauatrohieroanthropoicichthyopyrosiderchpnomyoalectryoophiobotanopegohydrorhabdocrithoaleuroalphitohalomolybdoclerobleloaxinocoscinodactyliogeolithopossopscphocatoptrotephraoeirochiroomychodactyloarithstichooxgelosogastrogrocerobletonooenoscapulinaniac<BR/>(a man who is a false divine or forecaster)Manfaranghttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16672026288937285646noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-20433951701623883662008-02-21T21:26:00.000+00:002008-02-21T21:26:00.000+00:00I think you're drawing a little too much from the ...I think you're drawing a little too much from the American example, France has a similar separation of church and state and it doesn't suffer from the same problems.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6606798.post-580929646660710482008-02-21T19:21:00.000+00:002008-02-21T19:21:00.000+00:00"There is a certain style of politics - common in ..."There is a certain style of politics - common in Lib Dem circles but by no means confined to them - which I have come increasingly to reject. It involves speculating at an abstract theoretical level about what an ideal constitution would look like, how schools should be organised or the proper relations between church and state.<BR/><BR/>"The thinker then looks at the real world, discovers that its institutions do not match the models that he has come up with and demands that the world be changed everywhere, all at once so that the world is brought into line."<BR/><BR/>Yes there is a lot of this about. Some debates about tackling the problems of the health service revolve around whether the locally elected bodies we want to run them should be single- or multi-purpose, for example. No doubt there is a debate to have about this. But we are talking to ourselves when we have it.<BR/><BR/>Saying we want to disestablish the CofE seems to be at the mild end of this tendency.<BR/><BR/>Good article though.Peterhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/08575886209036717590noreply@blogger.com