Those Church Signs

[arthwollipot]

What drives the priest behind those controversial church signs

Father Rod Bower is famous for the thought-provoking signs outside his church at Gosford, on the New South Wales Central Coast.

They are often a reaction to the day's news, and recently he has had trouble keeping up with the political upheaval in Canberra.

Over just a few days, the messages reflected the rapidly changing scene. From "GOD HELP US" to "CHANGE LEADER, CHANGE NOTHING. CHANGE SYSTEMS, CHANGE THE WORLD".

The Anglican priest has now written a book called, appropriately, Outspoken: The Life and Work of the Man Behind Those Signs.

"Why I'm outspoken is because there are some incredibly important things for us to think about as a people, as a nation, and part of the prophetic role in the church is to get people to think about that and to highlight those issues," Father Bower said.

"I'm passionate about human rights and so that's what drives me out onto the stage."

Well whaddaya know. A progressive church leader.

 

[theprestige]

What are you talking about?

 

[arthwollipot]

What are you talking about?

I'm talking about an article that appeared on The Guardian website yesterday about an Anglican priest from Gosford who puts socially progressive messages on his chuch billboard every day.

 

[Thor 2]

Do you see this as a gotcha arth?

Sure there are some good people of the cloth but a priest like this dude is ignoring scripture when he puts out his messages. Hell we have guys like Spong who is an Anglican cleric but arguably an atheist. When we have clerics who stick to the sacred texts when making judgments we have the problem. In the famous words of Steven Weinberg:

Religion is an insult to human dignity. With or without it you would have good people doing good things and evil people doing evil things. But for good people to do evil things, that takes religion.

 

[arthwollipot]

Do you see this as a gotcha arth?

No, of course not. But it is a counterexample to those who believe that all religion is necessarily regressive

Sure there are some good people of the cloth but a priest like this dude is ignoring scripture when he puts out his messages. Hell we have guys like Spong who is an Anglican cleric but arguably an atheist. When we have clerics who stick to the sacred texts when making judgments we have the problem. In the famous words of Steven Weinberg:

I think that Father Rod would disagree with you that he is ignoring scripture. I think that he believes that he is following scripture when he posts his progressive messages. It might be worth asking him about it - the Gosford Anglican Church is on Facebook.

 

[Thor 2]

No, of course not. But it is a counterexample to those who believe that all religion is necessarily regressive

I think that Father Rod would disagree with you that he is ignoring scripture. I think that he believes that he is following scripture when he posts his progressive messages. It might be worth asking him about it - the Gosford Anglican Church is on Facebook.

I see this as contradictory. Religions are, (well the major abrahamic ones), regressive. Some clerics, (who ignore scripture), are not.

My position is consistent. I am anti theism, not anti theists. If someone like the good Father Rod, can rise above the regressive scripture and be progressive then full marks to him. The mental calisthenics involved are hard to fathom however.

I find myself agreeing with theprestige on this, (Christ, thats a worry), "what are you talking about?"

 

[arthwollipot]

I see this as contradictory. Religions are, (well the major abrahamic ones), regressive. Some clerics, (who ignore scripture), are not.

My position is consistent. I am anti theism, not anti theists. If someone like the good Father Rod, can rise above the regressive scripture and be progressive then full marks to him. The mental calisthenics involved are hard to fathom however.

I agree that your position is consistent. And we have gone over my objections to your "love the theist, hate the theism" approach ad nauseam elsewhere. But I contend that your difficulty in fathoming how a religious person can hold progressive ideas is a failure of imagination on your part, not a failure of religion.