Friday
I came across this "Oddly Enough" item over at Reuters this afternoon. It seems that the straight-laced culture of Norway is alive and kicking:
The Church of Norway forced a priest to resign on Friday from a panel set to judge bikini-clad women competing to be the country's Miss Universe contestant.
Einar Gelius, an Oslo Lutheran vicar, has said it was his right to do as he wished during his spare time, but church members said that as a clergyman he always represented the Church and should not be seen to be judging other humans.
But the priest was not judging the moral worth of women, he was judging just how physically attractive they are, which is not the same thing at all. Dearie me, standards of logic in the churches these days seem to be on the skids.
Not that I am remotely interested in such shallow contests, you understand.
So, the Lutheran Church wasn't upset because of anything in the Bible, just in their PC ideology. What a surprise. O for the days when a priest could be condemned on the basis of Scripture, not on his failure to conform to the latest pronouncements of the State. Because of course there's nothing in Scripture about judging people - oh, wait! Maybe the vicar was remembering, "Thou shalt not suffer a witch to live." Sorry.
Posted by Robert Speirs at January 13, 2006 07:30 PM
Whilst I agree that this is not a totally trivial issue, are there not (in this world) many more things that need putting right?
Best regards
Posted by Nigel Sedgwick at January 13, 2006 08:22 PM
We all have to make judgements about the worth of other humans, about their trustworthiness, ethics etc etc. almost every day of our lives. Societies would be anarchic otherwise.
And I assume they joined a Church because that church makes certain value judgements which they agree with.
These idiots need to wake up.
Posted by Keith at January 13, 2006 10:32 PM
Robert Spiers:
"Judge not, that thou be not judged".
Seems pretty open-and-shut to me (dang, that's a judgement!)
Posted by brianr at January 13, 2006 11:04 PM
All right, I admit it, I'm over-using the "Oh, wait.." meme
Posted by Robert Speirs at January 13, 2006 11:49 PM
What is more worrying about Norway is their plan to force firms to have 40% women on their boards. No-one seems to have pointed out that if Norway is a free country, feminists are free to set up their own 100% "wimmin" companies. Which would, natch, do much better than the boring old "manned" companies.
There don't seem to be any "libertarians" in Norway or abroad to point this out.
Posted by Karl rove at January 14, 2006 12:45 PM
There are few things in this world more beguiling, debilitating & humiliating than quotas.
Posted by permanent expat at January 14, 2006 02:38 PM
Is there a reason why England, Scotland and Wales are entering separately? I haven't a problem with this, it just seemed curious (sorry - I ignored the serious element of this thread and went straight to the link marked "shallow contests".
Posted by mark at January 14, 2006 04:03 PM
Nigel, I blogged the item because it struck me as a piece of nonsense and faintly amusing. I cannot write about heavy political stuff all the time, it is too depressing!
Posted by Johnathan at January 14, 2006 04:09 PM
