I suppose it makes a change from a sex scandal, though you could argue that, in the scale of things, it could actually be worse.
According to The Times:
A 60-year-old vicar was charged yesterday with involvement in an alleged criminal conspiracy to organise “sham marriages” for illegal immigrants.
The Rev Alex Brown was one of four people arrested after a series of dawn raids in the Hastings area of East Sussex on Tuesday, which came after an 18-month investigation by Sussex Police and the UK Border Agency’s immigration crime team.
Police searched the offices of St Peter and St Paul Church, St Leonards, and arrested Mr Brown, who has worked in the parish for almost 20 years. He was charged with conspiring to facilitate unlawful entry and solemnising a marriage according to the rites of the Church of England without banns of matrimony being duly published.
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Tags: banns, Church of England, clergy, East Sussex, Hastings, management, matrimony, Rev Alex Brown, sacrament, sham marriages, St Leonards, St Peter and St Paul Church, vicar
Posted in Morality, Religion | No Comments »
There seem to be more and more cases where religious people are claiming that their faith prevents them from doing their job. If they are then asked to continue doing the job that they were employed to do, some are claiming that they are facing religious discrimination.
In recent months I have been aware of:
- an employee in a hairdressing salon being sacked after refusing to remove her headgear and thus failing to comply with the policy of staff dressing to promote the image of the salon;
- supermarket staff wanting to refuse to sell certain products that they find offensive;
- bus drivers refusing to drive buses that carried adverts that apparently offended their religion;
- a nurse claiming that she should be allowed to pray with patients as part of her working life;
- hospital staff refusing to wear more hygienic clothes that would help prevent infection but would expose their arms;
- and more recently, of Theresa Davies, the Christian registrar at Islington Council, who was demoted because she refused to perform gay marriages.
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Tags: bus driver, Christian, Christianity, civil partnerships, discrimination, gay marriage, hairdresser, Islington Council, receptionist, registrar, Theresa Davies
Posted in Faith, Human Rights, Religion, Science | 5 Comments »
I left teaching over 8 years ago, but the most abiding memories are the times when I was reduced to tears (on 3 occasions quite literally), by some of the devastatingly funny things that were said, or written.
I am grateful to Sarah Ebner at SchoolGate and Summersdale publishing for the following exam blunders:
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Tags: blunders, examination, Sarah Ebner, teachers, teaching
Posted in Creativity, Humor, Humour, Language | 3 Comments »
I caught part of BBC’s Songs of Praise last night. Well, it was on the TV, and I have spent enough years in my former life as an active Christian to have a strong cultural resonance with some of the music, and there was nothing else in particular to do, so I watched.
In the interviews, where an earnest and intense presenter (in this case, Pam Rhodes) has to try to do the religious bit by getting participants to talk about their faith (nothing too zealous or evangelical mind you, as that would offend the vast heathen or multi-faith audience and a lot of Christians too - just something bland, gentle and reassuring), I was struck by the power of wishful thinking.
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Tags: BBC, Christian, delusion, dreams, Faith, illusion, Pam Rhodes, prayer, psychotherapist, psychotherapy, religious experience, Songs of Praise, visions
Posted in Existential, Faith, Humanity, Mortality, Psychology, Religion, Therapy | 7 Comments »
There was a pile of dog poo on the pavement.
As they walked to work, four men trod in it and messed up their shoes.
The first man felt very sad. He looked at the mess and smelled the smell and said to himself: “You know, this just about sums me up. This always happens to me. It’s the kind of guy I am. I can’t even walk down a street without messing things up. The day has started badly and it’s going to get worse from here-on-in.” This man never got to work. He went home and got into bed and stayed there feeling more depressed as the day went on.
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Tags: acting, affect, anger, anxiety, behaviour, CBT, cognition, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, counselling, depression, dog, emotion, feeling, psychotherapy, rumination, shit, thinking
Posted in Existential, Health, Humanity, Humor, Humour, Productivity, Psychology, Therapy | 9 Comments »
As any Roman Catholic priest or nun will tell you, extra-marital sex is clearly a sin and should be punished, severely. I am grateful to the National Secular Society for the following:
Catholic school that unfairly dismissed an unmarried mother loses appeal
A Catholic school that sacked an unmarried teaching assistant after she became pregnant has lost its appeal against a decision that it unfairly dismissed her.
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Tags: Andrew Brown, church, Church Times, employment tribunal, extra-marital sex, Julie Blenkinsop, Libby Purves, maternity leave, Middlesbrough, nun, pregnancy, priest, Roman Catholicism, St Alphonsus Primary, The Times, unmarried mother
Posted in Faith, Health, Human Rights, Humanity, Law, Morality | 4 Comments »
Sometimes (perhaps especially when on holiday) we often long for an anxiety-free existence. However, in my book, that would be a bad thing. Human beings have powerful emotional systems and anxiety is a natural feeling that arises in response to stress. It is part of the natural flight-or-fight response that have enabled the human race to evolve and survive over millenia. To have no emotion in the face of threat means that we would either be dead or psychotic. Some some anxiety can be a good thing and is a sign of mental health.
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Tags: anxiety, cannula, CBT, Cognitive Behavioral Therapy, Cognitive Behavioural Therapy, OCD, phobia, probability, stress, worry
Posted in Health, Mortality, Psychology, Therapy | 5 Comments »
To deliberately malnourish and beat children so that, in some cases, their bones are broken, is bad. To systematically sexually abuse them over a number of years is evil. And for some remote, generalized individuals years later to say “Sorry” is not good enough.
The physical scars of endemic emotional, physical, and sexual abuse of thousands of children may have healed (though in many cases the victims of that abuse will carry physical markers with them for life), but clearly the psychological damage will remain unhealed for many of them. The recent report into Child Abuse within Catholic Institutions in Ireland (Executive Summary of the five volume report HERE), although exposing the staggering scale of the problem, will not help many to heal. In fact, the failure to name the perpetrators and bring them to justice, will do nothing but twist a brutal knife into a very painful wound.
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Tags: abuser, Catholic Church, Christian Brothers, Ireland, nuns, paedophile, priests, rape, secrecy, sexual abuse, trauma
Posted in Human Rights, Isolation, Morality, Religion | 9 Comments »
Have you heard the story about the man and his monkey?
One day John was sitting in his office, minding his own business, when suddenly his boss opened the door and threw in a monkey. “Here,” said his boss. “Here’s a new monkey for you. You’ve got to keep this one.” And his boss closed the door and left.
John sat there stunned as the monkey proceeded to cause havoc in the room. It rushed around, opened draws, pulled boxes off shelves, threw paper around, and at one point, even tried to answer the phone. “Well,” thought John. “I don’t like this, but I had better do something. I can’t give it back to the boss. He said it is mine and that I have to keep it. I had better get it under control before it causes even more damage.”
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Tags: inappropriate guilt, infantilizaiton, monkey, responsibility
Posted in Existential, Humanity, Relationships, Therapy | 2 Comments »
