3 thoughts on “Fearsomely Reverend James Jones, ex-Lord Bishop of Liverpool and Bishop of Prisons”
All too many TftD speakers think they’ve met the brief if they manage to shoehorn a cherry-picked gobbet of their BBoMS into their lecture, no matter what the original context or meaning. James Jones didn’t even do that: he simply asserted that the part of the creation myth where the IMF breathes life into being is an example of “energising”, and indeed that’s what the authors meant.
This is ridiculous. The Greeks were on their way to gaining an understanding of energy, but the Israelites had no idea. And their Christian successors, of course, regarded pretty well all science and technology as pagan and therefore sinful.
Also like many TftD speakers, Jones told us all off for our wasteful attitude towards energy, and even told the Tory leadership contenders to look to the future, without once suggesting exactly what we, and they, should be doing instead. But if you’re a Bishop it’s much easier to find problems than solutions.
My lasting memory of James Jones is from BBC “Question Time” from Hull when he was identified in the audience as “the man in the purple shirt” and there was no indication in his behaviour that he should have been known.
Any way: at about 01:49: “In the Bible ‘energy’ is literally the word used to describe how God works in the world.” Well, I did have a look on http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org and no, it isn’t. A bishop should know better.
Incidentally, I like the site; it is American, hence “King James” not AV. It also has the 1611 version of the unchangeable word and can be searched fairly easily.
Summer is usually the silly season for news, but this year everything in the news is terrible (none of which is God’s fault though) and therefore I’ll do the silly bit by making stuff up.
John D. Rockefeller was a great man who made squillions from oil industries by “seeing ahead of us, but a little farther”. Of course, what he didn’t see ahead was that burning oil for a century would push carbon dioxide levels up and cause human induced climate change. Well, none of us saw that coming did we; or once we did, they (the oil industry) made sure they kept it quiet or made you doubt it was real. This allowed those who made massive profits to be philanthropic with their vast wealth and do good works in Jesus’ name.
America and Russia were pioneers of using oil but luckily Rockefeller was a good Baptist (not one of those awful Eastern Orthodox types) and prayed that God would look after his chosen American people by showing those Russkies that the energy produced from his oil was a sacred gift to the poor of the capitalist world, so we could produce millions of tons of plastic junk and drive round in massively wasteful gas guzzlers – it’s all a matter of justice – thank you Jesus!
Yes creating energy by burning hydrocarbons is a sacred gift very much like a magical supernatural life force. But unlike the limitless life Rockefeller will have in heaven for being such a good Baptist (praise Jesus), the earth is not a limitless larder (sad face).
Platitude of the Day 
All too many TftD speakers think they’ve met the brief if they manage to shoehorn a cherry-picked gobbet of their BBoMS into their lecture, no matter what the original context or meaning. James Jones didn’t even do that: he simply asserted that the part of the creation myth where the IMF breathes life into being is an example of “energising”, and indeed that’s what the authors meant.
This is ridiculous. The Greeks were on their way to gaining an understanding of energy, but the Israelites had no idea. And their Christian successors, of course, regarded pretty well all science and technology as pagan and therefore sinful.
Also like many TftD speakers, Jones told us all off for our wasteful attitude towards energy, and even told the Tory leadership contenders to look to the future, without once suggesting exactly what we, and they, should be doing instead. But if you’re a Bishop it’s much easier to find problems than solutions.
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My lasting memory of James Jones is from BBC “Question Time” from Hull when he was identified in the audience as “the man in the purple shirt” and there was no indication in his behaviour that he should have been known.
Any way: at about 01:49: “In the Bible ‘energy’ is literally the word used to describe how God works in the world.” Well, I did have a look on http://www.kingjamesbibleonline.org and no, it isn’t. A bishop should know better.
Incidentally, I like the site; it is American, hence “King James” not AV. It also has the 1611 version of the unchangeable word and can be searched fairly easily.
LikeLike
Summer is usually the silly season for news, but this year everything in the news is terrible (none of which is God’s fault though) and therefore I’ll do the silly bit by making stuff up.
John D. Rockefeller was a great man who made squillions from oil industries by “seeing ahead of us, but a little farther”. Of course, what he didn’t see ahead was that burning oil for a century would push carbon dioxide levels up and cause human induced climate change. Well, none of us saw that coming did we; or once we did, they (the oil industry) made sure they kept it quiet or made you doubt it was real. This allowed those who made massive profits to be philanthropic with their vast wealth and do good works in Jesus’ name.
America and Russia were pioneers of using oil but luckily Rockefeller was a good Baptist (not one of those awful Eastern Orthodox types) and prayed that God would look after his chosen American people by showing those Russkies that the energy produced from his oil was a sacred gift to the poor of the capitalist world, so we could produce millions of tons of plastic junk and drive round in massively wasteful gas guzzlers – it’s all a matter of justice – thank you Jesus!
Yes creating energy by burning hydrocarbons is a sacred gift very much like a magical supernatural life force. But unlike the limitless life Rockefeller will have in heaven for being such a good Baptist (praise Jesus), the earth is not a limitless larder (sad face).
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