Disgruntled Canuck thought Anglicanism was supposed to be a religion

Ed. here. We hope the good folks who are keeping Blazing Cat Fur going, strong as ever, won't mind our anticipating their permission to repost the following excellent article, written by a resident of the Canadian province of Nova Scotia (The Ocean Playground TM) who wonders when his church (or that of his mother) ceased being a religion and started being a part of the anti-racism industry.

The alleged church in question is the Anglican Church of Canada -- sometimes called "The Tory Party at Prayer" -- whose "Giving with Grace" promo invites Canadians "to help the ministries of the Anglican Church of Canada make real transformation in real communities here at home and abroad." It's not about religion, now, but about social justice, or so it seems. That prompted someone known only TLDR to write

The Good Lord Help Me, I Am Now Holden Caulfield. 

(Don’t Read This, It’s Just Me Whining. TLDR.)

It’s been a horrible year, basically, for everyone. Obviously some more than others. I get that. And I can’t even look out of the window without seeing some idiot walking down an abandoned street wearing a muzzle. I live opposite a school. Some parents are making their tiny children wear them. "What a great childhood! I remember having cloth over half my face most of the time."...

I spent most of the summer in bed (something else, I think/hope I’m fine now) and the experience seems to have rendered me a bit morbid. I am now, without exaggeration, convinced that if Justin (Totally Not Fidel Castro’s Son) said that cars should start “social distancing” because maybe they breathe or something half these people would be doing that exact thing an hour later. Because Science!

I hit a wall two days ago when I staggered out of bed a bit hungover in a bad mood and found this in the dining room. My mother subscribes. Whether she pays or not I don’t have the calories to investigate. I didn’t make it past page one, although I have perused this mag before. I mean, they have a regular contributor priest called Something MacDonald who has a beard and is slightly whiter than Fauxcahontas Warren (which is saying something) and is pretending to be Indian. Because it’s usually "Native Native First Nations Native" with these guys, except when it’s not "Black Black Black".

I thought Anglicanism was supposed to be a religion. Just look at this thing. What gets me is that everyone involved, by which I mean the subjects, the writers, the editors, the publishers, the subscribers, every single person except possibly the postman is completely full of it. 

There's a South African priest whose profile is headlined "We can name the evil that is racism". How trailblazing. How original. Gosh, I bet they all stood up and applauded at your courage! I wonder if he can do anything else. 

And then there's some chick who claims that she "...still remembers conversations from a church she attended years ago. The congregation constantly associated whiteness with purity and goodness, and darkness with evil. They talked about people being 'washed white' from the blackness of sin." Apparently this was "hurting me, it is damaging to my soul."

If that's true then she's a mental case, and if it's not true (which would be my guess) she's a liar and a talentless drama-queen. Or, best case scenario, a good con artist. But I'm basically cool with her. I don't have too many talents myself. It's the ageing "Anglican" or "United" or whichever denomination creeps who listen to her speeches and congratulate themselves on how wonderfully un-racist and woke etc. they are who make me sick. 

She’s a pet to them. She’s miss "Blackity-black-black-black" who massages their ridiculous egos. Has she mentioned in the last 20 seconds that she’s black? I hope so. Otherwise, what's the point of her to these low IQ egomaniacs pretending to be religious leaders? 

I remember P.J. O’Rourke – not, recently, a hero of mine – writing years ago that he was in the Philippines, listening to the state broadcaster, and palpably, physically felt that he couldn’t get "the hum of bullshit" out of his ear. That's how I feel now. I'm willing to believe that none of these people are exactly geniuses, but some of them have to be human enough to have some glimmer of self-awareness. Yet they do this anyway. Bastards.

More on Israel: is it really an "apartheid state"?

Margarent Wente, a columnist for the Globe and Mail (Canada's self-styled "national newspaper") can usually be counted on for an insightful analysis of whatever topic she turns her hand (keyboard? ed.) to. Her take on the United Church's debate on Israel and its treatment of the Palestinians is excellent. Click here to read "How Israel became South Africa".

Ms. Wente rightly points the finger of scorn at the loony lefties in the UCC and "the Presbyterian Church in the U.S., the Church of England, Britain's National Union of Journalists, Ireland's largest public-sector union, various British academic groups, and our own beloved CUPE, all of which have passed anti-Israel resolutions".

Walt has one little question though. Is Ms. Wente by any chance...ermmm...Jewish? I think we should be told!

United Church...anti-Semitic? Really?!

About the last organization Walt would expect to be accused of anti-Semitism is the United Church of Canada. And yet, the Canadian Jewish Congress has just condemned the UCC for having the demerity to raise, for purposes of debate at its general meeting, the possibility of boycotts and sanctions against Israel "until Israel meets its obligation to recognize the Palestinian people's inalienable right to self-determination."

For those not familiar with the Canadian religious scene, the United Church was created in the 1920s by a merger of Methodists and some of the Presbyterians. The UCC has always been on the left-liberal side of the religious spectrum, espousing ideals of liberal humanism which often seem at odds with the principles of Christianity. Many United Church clergymen -- oops, clergypeople -- express doubts about the Virgin Birth, the Divinity of Jesus and even the existence of God.

So also, when it comes to politics, the UCC seem rather a leftish lot. One sees them wearing their cords and birkenstocks heading for the polls to vote for the Few Democrats. (Catholics tend to vote Liberal and evangelical Protestants lean decidedly to the right.)

The resolutions up for debate at the UCC general meeting have to do with politics, not religion. But this hardly comes as a surprise. If the Anglicans are the Tory party at prayer, the United Church is the NDP, not exactly praying but "thinking thoughts" with the idea that God might take some notice of their thought processes...if there is a God.

The proposers of the resolutions want to push the state of Israel towards allowing self-determination for the Palestinian (Arab) people within its territory. The Jewish Congress, though, seems to feel that any attack on Israel is an attack on Judaism and Jews. Ergo, those who support the idea of Palestinian self-determination are anti-Semitic racists.

Walt asks: If arguing for a Palestinian homeland makes you an anti-Semitic racist, what does arguing for Jewish homeland make you?