02 November 2012

Clifford Longley, Again

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There's an odd thing happens when you're travelling: things that belong in one time of day happen in another.  So you might find yourself in an airport lounge one evening and have the radio playing through your laptop playing Thought For The Day. That might make it hard to believe your ears.

If that ever happens, come back to the Radio 4 website and download the piece, and you might find that your ears didn't deceive you, and that Clifford Longley appears to be saying that Jimmy Saville has gone to Hell http://downloads.bbc.co.uk/podcasts/radio4/thought/thought_20121030-1310a.mp3.

Now, I have strong opinions on lots of things, but accusing others of having committed mortal sin feels to me like a step too far, not least because I have no Godlike insight into anybody else's mind.  Clifford, though, knows that JS committed mortal sin, and thinks nothing of telling the world what the sinner's penance will have consisted off (including, in this case, psychiatric counselling) and then telling us that JS wasn't penitent and that his Catholicsm was a charade.

Two things strike me: are the Tabletistas finally (if over-exuberantly) rediscovering Sin, and can we expect a similarly robust attitude to some of the Life issues some of us feel they are a bit, well, soft on?

And does "Judge not, that you may not be judged" (Mat 7:1) not count when a sinner has committed what seems to be the gravest sin of all, that of embarrassing the BBC? 

3 comments:

Ben Trovato said...

It seems pretty clear to me: a Mortal Sin is one of which Tabletistas disapprove. And for that, there is no forgiveness, in this world or the next (sicut Tabletistas).

Patricius said...

Nice to know that Clifford can expect to see a familiar face when he gets there!

Richard Collins said...

But Ttony, the Blessed Clifford is only following the party line. Guilty unequivocally guilty, even before all the evidence has been sifted and heard.
Even Archbishop Nichols has pointed the finger by prematurely asking for Savile's Papal Knighthood to be rescinded.
We should all wait for the police findings to be made public before making up our minds, even though heaRSAY EVIDENCE IS OVERWHELMING.