If Elon Musk thought he had his work cut out slashing government waste over in America with his new Department Of Government Efficiency (DOGE), he should think himself lucky he hasn’t taken on a similar role over in France. Here, unnecessary bureaucratic largesse is so great that local authorities have recently been ordered to eliminate some €2.2 billion in public spending – despite which, several hard-Left ones have continued to splurge taxpayer cash on the distinctly unnecessary cause of paying for training courses to facilitate psychic communication between plants, animals and certain lucky local humanoids securely employed on council payrolls.
Lyon council, which is dominated by the Green Ecologists Party, paid out €3,000 last year for 20 of its staff to attend a workshop upon “dialogue with living things” held by an outlet called LICHEN – Laboratoire des Interdépendances Concernant les Humaines Et Non-humaines (Laboratory Concerning the Interdependence Between Humans and Non-Humans). Despite Paris-mandated spending cuts, several other French councils are soon due to follow suit.
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Life’s too short to read about idiots like this. Any road up, I’m an atheist. (Thank heaven).
First point, agreed.
Second, nah, I just say I have no blooming idea. Agnostic on this point. Prefer to focus on doing what is good and right in the here and now. Let the Afterlife look after itself.
MAk, You may not have noted I deliberately hedged my bets in a nod to ‘Pascal’s Wager’ in my last two words.
No need to describe yourself as anything if you are not religious. After all we don’t have a word for people who don’t play golf do we? This world “atheist” must have came about when it was assumed everyone was religious except this bunch of cretins who needed to be given a name. I remember when I was going off to work on US Air bases, and ofcourse you have to fill in a form, with personal information etc, for security purposes —fair enough. One of the questions asked was “what religion”? ——I had put NONE. A call came into the office where I was and I was told I had not answered one of the questions. I had not said what religion I was. I replied that I had answered it and that my answer was “No Religion”. ——Remarkably this answer was not acceptable. So I told them to put down whatever they wanted. They put down Catholic. I was not going to get into any kind of argument over this so I let it go. I wanted the work. —-But I found that totally bizarre.
Non-golfer. Golf’s a sport, religion is a belief. Chalk ‘n’ cheese.
Landed at lots of USAF bases in the 70s. Guam, Wake, Hickham (Hawaii), Thule and Ascension, plus plenty in the US. Always a warm welcome, (except Thule. Minus 20C).
Don’t take my criticism of the word Atheist as criticism of you for using it. We don’t need a word for someone one who does not participate in something, whether that be religion, sport or anything else. Atheist is a non word. I do not participate in religion either but I refuse to use that term that tries to categorise me and put me in a little box. —–On the Americans, I also found them very hospitable when I worked on bases all over Europe, but I just find it absurd that they would not accept that a person does not participate in any religion and could not work on their bases unless they had a religious label —cheers.
The Yanks are very serious about religion, often to the point of absurdity that you recall – not being allowed to have none! Is there another country in which the PM/President/leader is expected to say at the end of a public address ‘Gawd Bless (this country) regardless of whether everyone is a believer or not?
But on the subject of education the American Constitution excludes religion from the curriculum and rightly so. We should take a leaf out of their book and ban ‘faith’ (aka indoctrination) schools altogether. It is the role of parents to inform children about the family religion if they have one, not schools.
Muslim schools (madrassas) are a serious problem as we have seen over and over again, but even CofE schools have had bad publicity recently for kowtowing to wokeness. Why should RC and Jewish schools have the further opportunity to promote the religion over and above what is drilled into kids at church and synagogue?
Religious belief or non-belief is a private matter for the individual to decide when reaching adulthood. Schools are there to educate, not indoctrinate.
You will be Muzzie soon thanks to The Cof E letting things slip to this degree ! They will be showing our Eurovision entry in church’s soon to drum up some more business
It has nothing to do with belief or conviction.
It is all about using IMHO useful idiots to destroy basic human social and other values.
Bye, bye Western democracy.
Destroyed from within with a lot of help from without.
I guess if you’re religious then belonging to an organised church may be helpful or pleasant but I think sooner or later if you set much store by that organisation to lead you spiritually then you’re going to be disappointed. I’m not religious but having a personal relationship with God sort of makes sense to me, having something that is mediated by people with title in frocks or whatever seems to be missing the point. Perhaps someone who thinks the clergy are important could make a counter argument.
This is totally protestant. The theory behind the Church is that it’s God’s BBC, ie the keeper, transmitter and arbiter of all official truths. Or an inexhaustible source of comfy lifetime jobs for retards who are convinced that their ejaculations are really the highest form of poetic utterance. Much like the original BBC. Or is that the copy?
I loved the biscuit humour!
I just couldn’t take any of this seriously.
And what effect does the church think this will have on the number of its traditional flock filling the pews? Pandering to the few at the expense of the many! They’ve lost the plot
The Rev Mann is probably preaching to the converted as far as most of his flock is concerned. Churches being much more like social clubs where people don’t discuss theology any more than members of political parties discuss politics in their clubs.
I think they lost it a long time ago. CofE vicars used to be the subject of gentle, affectionate humour. Now too many of them shock, disgust and repel us in order to get noticed by mass media. Exhibitionists, in other words.
Woke Welby should be the last Archfool of Canterbury before the CofE is disestablished,
Where is all this “Social Justice” in the Bible? —tick tock tick tock
https://twitter.com/mick_o_keeffe/status/1789997119241150782?s=48&t=z-QEFmo-T7EyF1VraAWbsg
More worrying are these “immigrant” invasions but it’s not an army.
No of course not.
Best dressed, best equipped, healthy. They are definitely not here for ‘asylum’
Shouldn’t the Rev Mann be offended by his own surname?
Despite his opinions on scripture, he can’t be that conversant with it if he wants to assert that Jesus was a woman. He cannot have understood Rev.i.13.
In the Gospel account there is an episode where Jesus tells his followers to sell their garments and buy swords. An example of toxic masculinity one might have thought. It is not doubted by anyone that Peter used one of the swords in the confrontation in Gethsemane. It used to be conjectured on circumstantial evidence that Mark used the other.
As swords would have been expensive items, the garments sold must have been those of the wealthy. Again, Mark’s mother, a woman known to have been a wealthy landowner, was thought to have been the source of them. None of this really fits some of the claims of the transclergy or the priestesses of the C of E.
Change it to The Right Reverend Trann/y?
I thought the bloke in the headline picture was Alan Carr with a bit of lippy on.
You can put lipstick on a pig….
Jesus wept, a feminist lesbian who’s still in possession of her penis?
Reinstall the ducking pond, stat!
Thank the gods it was only celibate men in frocks in charge for so long, and men that covered for men by keeping the scandal under wraps all those years, that’s all I can say. ‘Women of the cloth’? Bah…sounds daft! Whatever next?
No but in all seriousness, this sacrilege would never have happened if women hadn’t been allowed to join the clergy. Honestly, it’s been downhill ever since they were allowed to be ordained and it’s a very bad idea to have them in charge, as exemplary men of the cloth Pope Francis ( well he wears a frock , does he not? ) and Justin Welby perfectly demonstrate.
I just shudder to think how much worse the decades-long child sex abuse crisis within the church would have been if women were made priests, bishops and whatnot sooner. Can you imagine all of those many more choir boys and vulnerable kids put at risk by these known sexual predators who are female clergywomen?
“Women, know your limits!” H. Enfield.
Maryolater Steven Tucker derides the Protestant Church of England for refusing to violate their own Thirty-Nine Articles, in particular Article 28, dealing with Catholic Transubstantiation, which is Actual, Horrific Cannibalism.
“Article XXVIII. Of the Lord’s Supper.
THE Supper of the Lord is not only a sign of the love that Christians ought to have among themselves, one to another, but rather it is a sacrament of our redemption by Christ’s death: insomuch that to such as rightly, worthily, and with faith receive the same, the bread which we break is a partaking of the body of Christ, and likewise the cup of blessing is a partaking of the blood of Christ.
Transubstantiation (or the change of the substance of bread and wine) in the Supper of the Lord, CANNOT BE PROVED BY HOLY WRIT, but is REPUGNANT TO THE PLAIN WORDS OF SCRIPTURE, overthroweth the nature of a Sacrament, and hath given occasion to many superstitions.
The body of Christ is given, taken, and eaten in the Supper, ONLY AFTER AN HEAVENLY AND SPIRITUAL MANNER. And the means whereby the body of Christ is received and eaten in the Supper is Faith.
THE SACRAMENT OF THE LORD’S SUPPER WAS NOT BY CHRIST’S ORDINANCE RESERVED, CARRIED ABOUT, LIFTED UP, OR WORSHIPPED.”
I think you misunderstood that. He derides the CoE for rejection the ‘substantial’ transformation of bread into flesh by clerical fiat but accepting the equally ‘substantial’ transformation of men into women (or vice-versa) by self-declaration. The Critic article he linked to explains this in more details.
I didn’t “misunderstand” anything, you Pompous Git.
You did. But considering that your reaction to an attempt to clear this up is to become abusive, the problem is perhaps that you are, as someone once put it in another context, “simply not the sharpest knife in the drawer”.
I don’t need to “clear anything up”, you Bloated, Slimy, Obnoxious Toad.
Lola is a superbly clever song written by the great Ray Davies, even more relevant now than it was when it was written more than 50 years ago.
Here is what Wikipedia says about the “controversy for its lyrics”:
‘In a Record Mirror article entitled “Sex Change Record: Kink Speaks”, Ray Davies addressed the matter, saying, “It really doesn’t matter what sex Lola is, I think she’s all right”. Some radio stations faded the track out before implications of Lola’s biological sex were revealed. On 18 November 1970, “Lola” was banned from being played by several radio stations in Australia because of its “controversial subject matter”, though some began playing “Lola” again after having made a crude edit, which sounded like the record had jumped a groove, to remove the line “I’m glad I’m a man and so’s Lola”.
Well, I’m not the world’s most masculine man
But I know what I am, and I’m glad I’m a man
And so is Lola
Lo-Lo, Lo, Lo-Lola
Lo-Lo, Lo, Lo-Lola
In a story all about gender ambiguity, the final line, “I’m glad I’m a man and so’s Lola”, is brilliantly ambiguous. It can be interpreted EITHER as (a) I’m glad I’m a man and Lola is glad I’m a man, OR (b) I’m glad I’m a man and Lola is a man.
The second interpretation would now be regarded as “transphobic” by the current cult of trans ideology, but Ray Davies was so clever that he wrote an ambiguous line with an alternative meaning which takes the wind out of the sails of any accusation of ‘transphobia’!
Ray is a songwriting Genius ! I challenge anyone English whoose Parents & Grand parents were involved in the Wars to Listen to Waterloo Sunset & not shed a tear at what the political class who used our Boys ( & Girls ) to fight their battles & then Shat on their memory ever since !
My Guess is the Rev. ‘Rachel’ Mann will be pro Palestine/Hamas and pro immigration? Probably relaxed about the Islamification of the Western World too.
I’m intrigued to know what kind of interview the CofE gave the Reverend?
The sad majority of posts on here are symptomatic of the moral collapse of the western world.
When we were young, we used to pass mental asylums and point at them. Then they closed them and the inmates are now running the country. Lord help us!!!
An utterly depressing article which shows the depths the CoE has sunk to. I was brought up CoE, became a Christian in the CoE, but have now been a member of a Grace Baptist church (where they teach the unadulterated Bible) for almost 30 years. Why on earth do truly believing Christians, especially ministers, stay in the CoE? By passive (in)action, they are allowing God’s name to become besmirched and bring great dishonour to his name. In these dark times we need God’s infinite mercy, love and light to shine out! I’m not sure how helpful such an article is except to make us aware of Brett Murphy and pray that others would have similar courage to stand out against darkness and evil.
So, another troublesome Mann. A bit less litigious and without so many fawning experts.
Well, all I can say is, “Jesus wept.”
Reverend Mann needs psychological help but not as much as those who are prepared to sit through his service. At least Reverend Mann is smart enough to be paid for his woke evangelism and may enjoy a decent pension whilst his flock may end up in the loony bin if they engage frequently in this freak show.
I can remember when this was considered satirical: Bing Videos
Say goodbye to the modern Church of England…
Steve, I agree with almost everything you write and it is imoportant that you highlight the issues that you do.
However I find your articles FAR too long. You’d have much more impact if you cut out up to 3/4 of the text or even more. It’s the message that’s important not all the verbiage round it.
Just my POV.
Good luck Roger