Philip Pullman was right

my friend E. Cross Saltire asked me to blog about this supposing that i could provide a more substantial argument given those bits of my background that are more or less associated with the material in question. i told him i'd think about it; while i have some strong opinions on the matter, i didn't want to end up providing arguments that were as inappropriate and inadequately considered as this bishop's. but having read E's post, i don't think i can be any more substantial or comprehensive than he's already been:

http://nontrivialpursuit.blogspot.com/2007/12/advice-for-your-excellencies.html

still, just a couple quick things:

2. Avoid making medical claims because, however we look at it, DD does not equal MD. Also, if Your Excellencies will point out that some contraceptives can raise the risk of certain cancers, you will be hard pressed to explain away the fact that contraceptives can reduce the risk of some cancers, and sex without contraceptives raises the risk of other cancers.

and wouldn't you know it, *not* having sex raises the risk for some cancers as well. higher rates of breast and endometrial cancer, for instance, have been observed in nuns.

How holy is choosing the strait and narrow if the wide and broad was never shown?

calls into question the whole 'forbidden fruit' scenario, dunnit?

and finally,

6. Do not oppose humane, non-judgemental counselling and health care for
anyone, even those you consider automatically excommunicated. Being humane and
non-judgemental are good things, Your Excellencies.

you can't imagine just how badly medical professionals need to be reminded of this. quite frankly, i was frequently more horrified by how these 'professionals' treated their patients than by what the patients had done to require treatment in the first place. whatever happened to that bit in the Hippocratic Oath which says, in essence, 'thou shalt not play God'?

(just to be clear, and to divert any potential snarkiness from that particular direction, this is not a statement of support for the medical malpractice law. that's an entirely different set of issues, and not one i'll be getting into here, thank you very much. only that i'm as strongly opposed to it as any sensible person who's been 'on the inside' should be, imho.)

on the conceptual spinner: Sex & Religion, Vai.