Oy

[tree_and_leaf]

Julie Burchill has got religion. Had my usual reaction to JB's writing, i.e. it inspires occasional moments of thinking 'that's a decent point', but mostly eye-rolling. Though the question (apart from why someone who is much more enthusiastic about the OT than the NT isn't Jewish) which presented itself most forcibly is how she reconciles her Protestant chauvinism with her admiration for Fr Gavin Ashenden, who sounds... fairly high up the candle.

Have started packing; need to find out if the rumour that you can abmeld online is true.

(My mind is all over the place at the moment, yes; why do you ask?)

Comments

[sillymouse.livejournal.com]

Oh no. Not again. I thought she was supposed to have renounced journalism?

[tree_and_leaf]

So did I, and then... there she was, and I felt compelled to share the trauma with everyone else.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

I wouldn't worry. Remember when she got lesbianism. It didn't last, either.

[straussmonster.livejournal.com]

I have no idea who this person is, but I loled.

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

All you might want to know, and probably far more:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Julie_Burchill

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

Burchill was briefly married to Parsons, and frequently attacks him; she claims to have got through the "sexual side" of their marriage "by pretending that my husband was my friend Peter York".[3] After Parsons, Burchill married Cosmo Landesman, the son of Fran and Jay Landesman. Each marriage produced one son, both of whom live with their fathers.

I'm making such a D: face right now (though am at least glad for sake of the sons that they're not living with her).

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Julie Burchill has been an inexhaustible and inexpressible source of mirth to anyone in this country with a sense of humour, for a good twenty-five years now. I feel sorry for the poor Anglicans.

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

She sounds entirely mad. But yes, I can see where you'd be thankful to be well clear of the dubious benefit of her conversion...

[tree_and_leaf]

Well, except when she's making you feel embarrassed that she claims to be on your side!

... as if we didn't have enough problems as it is.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

As I said... I feel sorry for you lot. And it takes a lot to make me call you "the poor Anglicans".

[zoepaleologa.livejournal.com]

Tony Parsons's irresistible remark about his ex-wife:

"hell hath no fury like an ex-wife run to fat"

I imagine both sons and their fathers agree with your thoughts.

[carlanime.livejournal.com]

*snort* That's rather a cheap shot, but given what she apparently feels free to say about him, I can't much blame him for firing it.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

You might also wonder which of them turned out to be the better writer. She writes sex novels which get remaindered. He wrote the critically-acclaimed, movie-adapted international best-seller "About a Boy".

[tree_and_leaf]

She's a columnist, began as a music journalist in the eighties, has written a trashy teen novel about lesbianism, and is generally... interesting. And amusing as long as she's not sounding off about a subject you care about.

[tree_and_leaf]

Anything to shock the chattering classes, eh? *is evil*

[oursin.livejournal.com]

Not all atheists are Dawkins, FFS. This is one of several things I have read over the past couple of weeks with what strikes me as tenuously-founded athy-bashing going on, which assume that all non-theists are like him, or their perception of him. By people who would get v agitated if you made the same generalisation about theists.

[tree_and_leaf]

Oh, quite. JB is the sort of person that I want to tell to get off my side (the same applies to most of her protestations of feminism and socialism)!

[owl]

why someone who is much more enthusiastic about the OT than the NT isn't Jewish

I didn't really get that vibe; more a denial of the attitude in some quarters that the OT is irrelevant, often going along with a IMO unpleasant dismissal of the Jews. (To quote one of the holiest people of my acquaintance, a 92-year-old Messianic Jew, "I like to think He is isn't finished with us yet!")

[tree_and_leaf]

I'm probably being unfair; JB rubs me up the wrong way, even on subjects where I actually agree with her (in this instance, it was the pointed omission of Catholics and the Orthodox which I found irritating). Though I do think it's a bit odd to write an article about why you're a Christian and not mention Jesus...

more a denial of the attitude in some quarters that the OT is irrelevant, often going along with a IMO unpleasant dismissal of the Jews.

Not an attitude I have any sympathy for, either, though I think in some cases it's more a fear of it being too difficult (not that that's excusable, either).

[owl]

Though I do think it's a bit odd to write an article about why you're a Christian and not mention Jesus...

Now that you mention it: yes, quite.

And the OT is difficult, but you're right, it's not an excuse.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Pointed omission? We were immitted, all right! She called us "the wretched Catholics" and added several oblique insults, all because we are so nasty to wimmin. That is why I am so relieved. As you say, she is the kind of person you do not want on your side. Mind you, the TEC side of Lambeth probably just got themselves a new poster girl.

[tree_and_leaf]

I was thinking of the 'Lord of the Jews and the Protestants' line, which for my personal taste was more insulting than the 'wretched Catholics' line - but I'm sure you can bear it.

Mind you, the TEC side of Lambeth probably just got themselves a new poster girl.

I wouldn't count on it; I'm not sure quite who you mean, but I am on the liberal side on a lot of matters, and I certainly don't want her as a figure head. Although going on the article, I think she'd find the concept of 'Affirming Catholicism' confusing anyway (though oddly enough the priest she refers to sounds remarkably Anglo-Catholic).

[fpb.livejournal.com]

WHEEEEEEWWW!!!! Thank God. For a second there, I was afraid she might declare herself a Catholic. But that's all right, we'll just have to make do with Bob Dylan, and except for Tony Blair, all's well with the world.

[tree_and_leaf]

Hm. Is JB more or less embarrassing than TB? A genuinely tough choice!

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Just ask yourself which you would rather have at dinner or be stuck in an elevator with. I think it rather answers itself.

[fpb.livejournal.com]

Come to think of it, she is the second sex novelist who makes a noisy public profession of Christian faith. What is it? Is it a matter of "Anything Anne Rice can do, I can do worse"? Or is it that Cbristianity has become so disreputable that it is the only way you can seriously honk off the respectable classes?

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Or is it that Cbristianity has become so disreputable that it is the only way you can seriously honk off the respectable classes?

heh. Just about.

by pretending that my husband was my friend Peter York

[splorfle]

need to find out if the rumour that you can abmeld online is true.

Ich glaube, dass haengt von der Fluglinie ab. Aber kmunson779 hat etwas aehnliches erfahren, also...

[Gott straff dieses Keyboard].

[tree_and_leaf]

Nee, abmelden beim Einwohnermeldeamt. Es scheint nicht möglich zu sein; ärgerlich, dann bin ich garantiert drei stunden los (Anweisung vom Amt: 'Um lange Wartezeiten zu vermeiden, sind Sie geraten, in den Morgenstunden zu kommen, d.h. vor 8 Uhr....') The joys of German bureaucracy...

[schreibergasse.livejournal.com]

Ach ja, dass brauchte auch für uns n' Ewigkeit. Muss' du auch von der Krankenkasse abmelden? (Keine Ahnung, ob du nach Deutschland zurückkomst; oder ob Nationak Health in Deutschland funktioniert.)

[tree_and_leaf]

Nein, der Vertag bei der Krankenkasse war zeitlich begrenzt und läuft einfach am Ende des Monats ab.

Es gibt zwar gegenseitige Abkommen zwischen den Gesundheitssystemen aller EU-Länder, allerdings gelten sie nur für Reisenden oder Leute, die sich für weniger als 3 Monaten im Land aufhalten; in dem Moment, dass man in Deutschland (Frankreich, wo auch immer) wohnhaft und gemeldet wird, ist den NHS für einen nicht mehr verantwortlich. Wäre ich krank geworden, als ich über Weihnachten zuhause war, hätte ich theoretisch einen Auslandskrankenschein von der deutschen Kasse, um behandelt zu werde, obwohl ich bezweifele, dass jemand sich die Mühe gemacht hatte, nachzuprüfen.....

[tree_and_leaf]

I have a horrid feeling it's the latter (which may be uncharitable, but... I don't think so).