Comment is free

Church faces crisis over 'tainted' women bishops plan ran the headline in the Telegraph:Historic plans to allow women to become bishops have been plunged into crisis after existing bishops voted through an eleventh-hour concession to traditionalists. In this articlethe dramatic headlines are balanced by wide ranging comments from interested parties. The Independent put it this way:Supporters of women bishops have rounded on senior leaders within the Church of England after they inserted last minute amendments to proposed legislation that will allow female clergy to hold the highest levels of office alongside their male colleagues.

Both papers presented intelligible reports on what Ruth Gledhill described as the worst -written press release since the Reformation. A less balanced view emerged in the Guardian's Comment is free including this revelation: [The Rev] "Miranda Threlfall Holmes, whose piece demanding no changes at all we published on Saturday, put up an embarrassing blogpost comparing the bishops to a particularly disgusting man who had gouged his wife's eyes out and then kept her in the house for 12 hours to stop her getting medical attention. She has subsequently taken down the post, which she now calls intemperate. I think she has been spending altogether too much time caring about Anglican politics." *

Last year Mrs Briton became incensed, and is still, after reading a bishop's view that "The ordination of women will rid the world of homophobia, misogyny, brutalisation of women in all situations including those in war zones."

However bizarre their views at least these people have an 'insider's' view of the direction in which they think the church should be heading, usually from the spiritual to the secular, but taking Comment is free as an example, it is amazing how many secularists feel free to pass comment on people's faith when faith clearly has no meaning for them. Worst of all, though, is insiders who should be people of faith using views of secularist outsiders to bolster arguments against those in the church for whom faith really matters.

* More from the Telegraph here.