tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397377665790588556.post7437755918925339804..comments2022-12-13T13:51:09.590+00:00Comments on Wool gathering of a northern dean: Ten Years Ago: Durham, Iraq and a New DeanAquiloniushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/15098649175728796819noreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-2397377665790588556.post-54408279527813904392013-08-17T18:57:03.033+01:002013-08-17T18:57:03.033+01:00The start of your sermon quoted above is about the...The start of your sermon quoted above is about the feeblest disapproval of the Iraq invasion I’ve ever read. In fact it’s not even clear whether you disapproved or not.<br /><br />As for your claim that those words were said “with some trepidation”, I suggest it took no guts whatever to say those words. Of course your problem was that the establishment voted for the war and the Church has always been on the side of the establishment: the Church of England is after all the “Tory Party at prayer”. And prior to the French revolution , The Church sided with the aristocracy rather than the peasants. The Church knows which side it’s bread is buttered, doesn’t it?<br /><br />You might like to know that the British National Party firmly opposed that war as from day one. So that puts you on the right of the allegedly “far right” BNP, at least as far as the Iraq war.<br /><br />And then there’s your claim to be concerned about fascism (Di Canio and all that). The Oxford dictionary and Chambers dictionaries define fascism as a mixture of characteristics, including “militarism”. So given that the BNP opposed the military invasion of Iraq, whereas you were ambivalent, it would seem that at least as far as militarism is concerned, you are more fascist than the BNP.<br /><br />Motes and beams and “the last shall be first, and the first shall be last” spring to mind.<br /><br />Ralph Musgravehttps://www.blogger.com/profile/09443857766263185665noreply@blogger.com