Historians Rebuke Justin Welby’s “Dangerous and Irresponsible” Smear of George Bell

Six very reputable historians have taken Archbishop Justin Welby to task for his smearing of George Bell.  Please read their entire open letter to Welby, but skipping to their conclusions...:

We state our position bluntly. There is no credible evidence at all that Bishop Bell was a paedophile….  We state this after reviewing all that is known about his character and behaviour over many years….  We note, and emphasize, that there was never so much as a whisper of such an allegation in his lifetime. It is the testing of accusations which shows the integrity of a society, not the making of them. 

Does that need saying today!  But moving along...

There is today no cloud at all over Bishop Bell. Nobody employing credible critical method could think otherwise. Two of us are biographers of former Archbishops of Canterbury and we all acknowledge the many difficulties and pressures which any archbishop must face, not least in a position which Archbishop Lang once called ‘incredible, indefensible and inevitable’. None of us may be considered natural critics of an Archbishop of Canterbury. But we must also draw a firm line. The statement of 15 December 2017 seems to us both irresponsible and dangerous. We therefore urge you, in all sincerity, to repudiate what you have said before more damage is done and thus to restore the esteem in which the high, historic office to which you have been called has been held.

Kudos to these scholars for this excellent statement.

As for Justin Welby, he has become rather isolated in this matter.  His smears reflect more on him than on George Bell.  And that is as it should be.

DACA and Illegal Immigration – Democrats are Using Labour’s Playbook

With DACA, the so-called Dreamers, and illegal immigration again a matter of dispute between President Trump and the Democrats and Establishment Republicans in Congress, I wish to point out the big picture.

To go deeply into the history of said big picture would take a book, a big roach-killing book, not a blog.  But my humble, very condensed effort anyway….

Tony Blair’s Labour was not happy with the cultural make up of the British electorate.  So Labour imported an electorate more to their liking through massive immigration.  The U. K. is suffering the fruit of that, including frequent Islamic terror attacks.

Democrats are trying to do the same thing to America.  They’ve already done it to California and to a lesser extent Colorado among other states.  They are trying to do it to all of us. One even admitted it recently. They want to overwhelm American voters retaining traditional American Constitutional values by importing Democrats.  To a large extent, they have already succeeded, thanks in part to establishment Republican enablers.  Massive crime from illegals is only part of the fruit of that.  The overwhelming of social services in many communities is another.  Oh yes.  I didn’t mention Democrats make a point to buy illegals’ future votes with welfare and other social services us citizens pay for.

The future of America depends on stopping the Democrats and their RINO enablers before it’s too late.

When Did the Magi visit Jesus?

Until recent years, I took it for granted that, as we see in manger scenes, there was a traffic jam at the manger with animals, angels, shepherds, that annoying drummer boy . . . and the Magi, the “Three Kings” if you will, complete with camels, of course.

But then I noticed that Herod targeted two year olds in his slaughter of the Holy Innocents in Bethlehem. And the Magi visited Jesus in a house, not at the manger.  So I joined those who deduce that Jesus was closer to two when the Magi visited him.

But, just after Christmas last week, in reading an Anglo-Saxon homily for Holy Innocents Day, I noticed an interesting alternative chronology from Aelfric.  He has the three Magi announcing Christ’s birth to Herod twelve days after his birth - how much this is history influencing the church calendar or the calendar influencing Aelfric’s history, I will let the reader decide. The three then visit Jesus no more than a few weeks after his birth.

Then Herod is called to Rome to clear himself of accusations before the Emperor, successfully it turned out.  When he returns, having found out the Magi withheld information after the birth of Christ from him, he then gives the infamous order to kill all the male babies of Bethlehem, two and younger.  Thus Aelfric attributes the two year delay in the order to commit mass infanticide to Herod’s trip to Rome, not to any lateness in the Three Kings’ visit.  Again, he has the Magi visit Jesus mere weeks after his birth.

I do not have any opinion on this question of which chronology is correct.  I think it plausible that the Magi first saw the star when Christ was born, and then discerning what it meant and then preparing and making the trip  resulted in a delay of many months.  Further, it may have been months after their visitation until Herod figured out he was tricked.  But Aelfric’s chronology sounds plausible as well.  But I confess this is not a question I have studied closely.

In any case, I present this puzzle of history to you on this Eve of the Epiphany.  If any have insight on this matter, feel free to comment.