Himself

The Rocky's Vince Carroll on the Anglican bishop of Liverpool's true creed:

Bishop James Jones is certainly no miser when it comes to self-flattery. The Anglican bishop of Liverpool, England, told a News reporter during a stop in Denver last week that the campaign to combat global warming is comparable, in terms of its importance for the world's poor, to the struggle to abolish slavery.

Since Jones is a leading religious voice in Britain against global warming, that would make him - what? - today's equivalent of William Wilberforce, presumably. Wilberforce, the great Christian anti-slavery crusader and member of Parliament, led the campaign that resulted in the abolition of the British slave trade in 1807 and emancipation 26 years later.

The story referred to, by the Rocky's religion writer Jean Torkelsen, provides even more evidence of Jones' fatuousness:

Jones said it is appropriate to liken global warming to slavery because the poor are being oppressed by climate changes that are ruining harvests.

Um, where's that happening, again? No matter, the bishop has solutions:

He said individuals could change their behaviors, such as using energy more efficiently and buying hybrid cars.

Radical. But the Man of God goes ever farther out, uh, man:

He plans to call on people next year to give up using one lightbulb for Lent.

Dude. Oh, there's one last leeeeetle detail:

Public policy changes are also necessary, but Jones said it wasn't his place to say which ones.

This ranks in deliberate cluelessness with the suggestion of the organizer of Peacejam (as uncritically paraphrased by Torkelsen earlier this year) that we should act "to cut down on the use of plastic bags in Africa where pools of stagnant water collect and breed disease-laden mosquitos. A simple change to absorbent canvas bags would prevent millions of cases of malaria."

Idiocy explained

The reason the bishop and the pacifist sound like such dingbats (besides the fact that they're dingbats, of course) is that neither can bring himself to say what he really believes: that in order to save the planet, "we" must radically restrict both human life and human productivity. Many are not so reticent.

Update: It's always good karma to relive Peacejam!

Update II: C.S. Lewis sure did call it, didn't he?