Bullshit in the Telegraph

[SSY]

There I was, eating breakfast, reading my paper. I flicked through the comment and letters page, and unfortunately saw the face of George Pitcher squinting back at me (this paper surmounts an opinion piece with a small portrait of the author). Now George Pitcher, as an opinion columnist, normally fills his allotted inches with waffle about how the Church of England is doing something wrong, or how everyone could do with a dose of Jesus in their lives, and today was little different.

Someone has set up a hotline for abused clergy to call (an idea that incidentally deports itself rather poorly in Pitcher's eyes), this gives him an opportunity to list grievances though, something he no doubt likes about the hotline. We eventually come to this

Bullying from congregants is a different matter. They can be altogether more pugilistic, especially after a sermon. And all we're allowed to do is blow kisses in return. But it's not a union's job to protect employees from customers, surely? I'd have thought that is the job of the police. And some priests do increasingly need protection from the more militant atheists.

I have always considered the priests weekly column to be waste of paper (come to that, waste of ink, time, even the space that the piece of paper is written on occupies), but the militant atheist part really annoyed me. It is a typical, throwaway comment, born more out of ignorance and mistrust of the "outsiders" than of any critical thought. It is exemplary of the persecution complex dear to the hearts of so many Christians, "Oh no, someone stands up and challenges my ideas and practices in an intelligent and unapologetic way, I feel so bullied, so persecuted". While in reality, I doubt our country has ever seen a case of a priest being bullied, harassed or infringed upon in any way because he believed in a god, that is certainly not going to stop him, the thing that has me most rankled is the "Us and Them" mentality that has been fostered, and then expressed through the wonderful channels of bigotry and ignorance.

I am the only one annoyed by this? Am I over reacting? Perhaps I should go and beat up a local Vicar? All your opinions are welcome.

The article has also attracted a fairly interesting selection of comments, read it by clicking here.

Edit: Spelling

[LoneMateria]

Hardcore Christians are not doing their job if they don't feel persecuted(I can't think of the bible verse but either Jesus or Paul tells their followers that they need to be persecuted).  I guess instead of letting reality set in that they are not persecuted they instead act like whiney children, they invent some dogma and shout it as loud as they can (as is the tradition of idiots on the losing side of an argument) to vindicate themselves.  We have similar problems in America too.  Fundamentalists scream persecution when they are the vast majority.  I can think of no polite way to explain this behavior.  These people are the most pig ignorant, self-deluded, worthless lumps of flesh on the planet who have run out of excuses for their poor behavior.  Atheists make up about 1% of the US and Christians 90% (90:1 ratio).  I've never heard of the minority persecuting the majority and certainly not at that size of a ratio.

[templeboy]

I saw this in the world section of my local paper...had a good chuckle..."the mean atheists are saying that god probably doesn't exist. I think rather than engaging them intellectually, I might go moan to my union about bullying..."

[curiosityandthecat]

Perhaps I should go and beat up a local Vicar?

Gotta start somewhere. Here, I'll help: