Be afraid, very afraid

Bells were ringing, the choir was singing, and Bishop-man deliverd the Easter lecture to his Christian flock. Let’s see what he had to say:

In his Easter message this weekend, the Anglican Archbishop of Sydney Dr Peter Jensen has warned of the occult.

The Archbishop is particularly concerned about people using the supernatural to contact deceased loved ones.

That’s right dear reader, one of the leading Christians in the country, with a pendant hanging from his neck showing a deceased person on a cross, during a festival celebrating the alleged resurrection of said dead person some 2000 years ago, tells his congregation that to believe someone could establish contact with people who passed away is very silly, supernatural, indeed witchcraft. Mwuahh ha, ha, ha, that is delicious.

A man whose whole professional reality is based on being able to communicate with a dead person, whose religion is based on the idea to promise a life after death, argues that we should be concerned about people trying to contact the deceased. The butcher telling shoppers not to make gravy.

The Archbishop then continued his sermon by sharing with his sheeple the initial finding of his investigation into the phenomenon of people evoking the spirits:

Dr Jensen told ABC radio's AM program there has been a surge of interest non-traditional religions.

"There's become a great deal more freedom than there used to be decades ago, with mind and spirit stuff; new age religions," he said.

"All the sort of stuff you see very prominently in book stores.”

Competition angst, that’s what this is, and as per Religion 101, competition needs to be stomped out. When operating in the holy industry, the standard weapon of choice to smear opposition is to pass judgment and brand them as sects, or as in Jensen’s case, new aged spirit stuff.

My hypocrisy meter almost maxed out when I took a reading on Jensen’s Easter message. Seemingly totally oblivious to the fact that his own religion was once upon a time considered an occult movement, with a guru gathering followers, which then set forth to convince others of their self-righteous claim to be the new, the one true religion, the Archbishop chooses to debase other people’s believe systems coz they aren’t quite as antique as his own.

It appears the priest’s line of reasoning is straight forward – The older an religion, the more believable and true it is. However, following his logic, we should all be converting to Hinduism, the religion with the oldest recorded roots, predating Sumerian, Egyptian and Babylonian cultures. By world religion standards, Christianity and Islam are new kids on the block, new age spirit stuff so to say.

But the Bishop kept the best part for last, where he reveals who his audience should blame for re-birthing this heretic past time of trying to get in contact with the dead. And the culprits are:

"But there's also been a large migrant intake into this country from people who haven't been impacted by Western cynical secularism, but culturally have a strong belief in the afterlife and in supernatural beings; in ghosts and spirits.

"And a surprising number of people therefore who are now living in Australia are quite concerned about, and fearful of I think, of this supernatural realm."

Uhh yeah baby, daft migrants with their unwashed believes engaging in voodoo majic, bringing with them from their homelands all those “occult” traditions the Christian missionaries weren’t able to extinct for good. For their good that is, because as most well read people would know, in the Christian life after death model there is nothing to be scared of. Apart from burning eternally in hell.

So, Archbishopman says don’t try to communicate with any souls in the after life, other than Jesus that is - you are allowed to talk to him. Believe in his father and you got nothing to worry about. Remember Adam and Eve, any indiscretion on this part and you won’t make it to heaven, sorry mate, flames on fire for you. Which probably explains why hanging out in your bookstore’s New Age section will lead you to nightmares.

Happy Easter

The Illusionist at his Very Best

PM John Howard, performing tonight his latest magic trick. Watch the grand conjurer transform dismay into hope:

This from today's SBS News:

Poll, Iraqis disillusioned

Iraqis are feeling increasingly pessimistic and insecure about their future, four years after the US-led invasion of Iraq, according to a poll published today.

According to the survey, just 39 per cent of Iraqis questioned think things are going well in their lives, while only 35 per cent think their lives will improve over the next year.

Just 40 per cent believe the general situation will improve.

The poll, commissioned by the BBC and US broadcaster ABC News, made for generally bleak reading, with barely more than a quarter — 26 per cent — of respondents saying they felt safe in their own neighbourhoods.

Other basic necessities were also found to be lacking, with 88 per cent of respondents saying the availability of electricity was either "quite bad" or "very bad"...

And now to John Howard's magic trick. Abracadabra fidibus and we get this from today's The West Australian:

Cautious sense of optimism in Iraq: PM
Prime Minister John Howard says there is a new sense of cautious optimism in Baghdad...

Incredible, Joh Bjelke Howard is amazing, David Copperfield couldn't have done this better.

And just to make us really proud of John Howard, the SMH has a lovely piece on how the elevators work in the Liberal Party:

Howard excels when it comes to mates

YOU might call it the FOG syndrome. Friends of the Government just keep getting appointed to the commanding heights of the system, into key positions on government boards and instrumentalities that either compete with, or can have a profound effect on, Australian business.

...But the Howard Government has arguably taken it to the next level. While this is not to question their capacities, or suggest that they are not well qualified in their own right, many top jobs on government boards and agencies have gone to prominent supporters, heads of key business lobby groups, big financial donors to the Coalition parties, staffers, or people personally close to senior ministers.

The latest is last week's appointment of former senior private secretary to John Howard, cabinet secretary and now company director, Paul McClintock, as chairman of Australia's biggest private health insurer, the Commonwealth Government-owned Medibank Private. Just by-the-by, McClintock is also chairman of Symbion Health, a company with extensive interests in private health care, health centres, radiology and medical imaging, pharmaceuticals and other health products like vitamins.

Of course, the Government denies his appointment represents any risk of a conflict of interest, despite what, to the lay observer, would appear to be a fertile field with Symbion on one side as a health goods and service supplier and Medicare Private on the other as a major insurer and funder of such goods and services...

You Beauty! How can someone not vote for the Liberal Party, Australia's Grand Old Party. So sophisticated, so refreshingly corrupt, so magic.

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