Magic Statistics

The Most Rev Greg Venables, Archbishop of the Province of Southern Cone, spoke to the Diocese of San Joaquin via this video.  Apb Venables, a leading Global South primate, delivered a powerful statement of support and encouragement to beleaguered orthodox Anglicans in the Diocese of San Joaquin and elsewhere in the Episcopal Church.

The video has been posted and discussed all over the Anglican blogosphere, but I decided to post it as well after Peter Williams, Dean and Rector of Christ Church Cathedral, Whitehorse, Diocese of Yukon, informed me that Abp Venables was his bishop when he and his wife served in Peru.

http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=8537805218963625191

Here is a transcript of the opening paragraphs.

These are difficult days in the Anglican communion. And its primates are only too aware of the problems orthodox believers are facing in the Episcopal church in the United States. The division which we face and to which we referred as the “tearing of the very fabric of the Anglican communion” has already happened, and has been recognized as having happened.

At the Lambeth Conference in 1998, over 90% of the bishops present voted to make it clear that the overwhelming mind of the Anglican communion is that in the area of human sexuality, there are two options for the Christian; marriage, between two people and intended for life, or abstinence.

We thought that that was clear enough. But it soon became clear from actions and words and decisions made that not everybody wanted to follow the line of the Communion. And we all knew at that moment that this present separation was going to happen. And basically it happened because there are two ways at the present moment of defining Christianity. One is to accept the way the Church catholic over the last 2000 years has defined it, in terms of God and the revelation He has given us in Scripture and in our Lord Jesus Christ, the one and only Saviour; or at the present moment, in postmodern terms, where it’s whatever you want it to be, because truth can no longer be defined.

The complete transcript is posted here and here.

Previous related posts:

• All charges against Bishop Schofield dropped
• Episcopal Bishop of L.A. gets trounced
• Move to depose orthodox Episcopal Church bishop

One month ago today, I blogged the arrest of Egyptian blogger Kareem Suleiman.  He remains in jail, awaiting a hearing on 16 December.

[H]e is still being detained and investigated on five charges, which include incitement to hate Islam, spreading malicious rumours that disrupt public security and defaming the Egyptian President.

From prison, Kareem smuggles notes for his friends to blog and tell the world about his plight. His arrest has made him come to the realisation that speaking his mind has put him in danger.

“After a lot of effort I have come to the conclusion - a reality I cannot escape from - and it is that a person using his brain and expressing his ideas freely is more dangerous in our country than destroying the property of others and dealing in drugs,” he wrote.

A website has been set up to publicise his case.  You can send a letter in support of Kareem and freedom of speech in Egypt here.

Previous related post: Egyptian blogger arrested for insulting Islam

A functionary in Statistics Canada's employment equity office (where else?) issued a "holiday diversity challenge" to all agency employees.  It was challenging all right, but not in the way he expected.

The grinch bureaucrat sent an e-mail to all agency employees—more than 3000 of 'em—advising everyone to be "sensitive" and "appropriate" at this holiday time.  (What holiday do you suppose he could be referring to?)

Religious folks railed and a public policy expert snickered yesterday at a Statistics Canada bureaucrat's holiday hints to nix Santa and red and green, think twice about boozy parties and use "appropriate holiday salutations."

"Negotiating what seems like a minefield of gaffes and awkward situations can feel like quite a challenge, but it doesn't have to be that way," wrote an employment equity office worker in a newsletter e-mailed to thousands.

In what reads like a parody, he suggests replacing the jolly old elf with a magician or clown at kids' parties, being conscious that alcohol may offend and decking the halls with "sensitive" decorations.

He suggests silver and gold garlands and wreaths, sleighs, reindeer and, oddly, poinsettias, which are typically red.

"Happy Holidays! Seasons Greetings!" he signs off.

No red or green?  Is he afraid that traditional Christmas colours are offensive to colour-blind people?

The e-mail elicited not sensitivity but exasperation and derision.  So many upset responses were received that it was disavowed the following day.

To Leslie Pal, who teaches public administration and policy at Carleton University, it's more about a "professionally sensitive" bureaucracy run amok.

"Sometimes those equity offices, with the best of intentions, act as if people in the workplace are either children or maniacally sensitive about everything," he said. "Most people are a lot more reasoned and mature than that."

At some level, one could say that the e-mail was motivated by “the best of intentions”.  At a deeper level, however, the employment equity officer was motivated by a belief that the best way to avoid “gaffes” is for Christians to suppress their most essential beliefs and simply avoid mentioning the reason why we have a big holiday every December.  Objectively, that is the agenda of secularist liberalism.

The call for “sensitive” decorating makes me wonder whether the employment equity officer wouldn’t be happiest if Statistics Canada simply removed Christmas from its calendar altogether.  Then the agency and its employees wouldn’t have to worry about insensitive festivities.  (But then they wouldn’t need an oppressive nanny, either.)