Bartholomew's Notes

From the website of the European Christian Political Movement:

On 23 June, the European Christian Political Movement organizes a conference on Liberty of Faith and Conscience.

…Speaking during the 23th of June will be Andrea Williams (Christian concern for our nation, UK), Ekaterina Smyslova (Lawyer, Russia)  and Roger Kiska (Alliance Defense Fund, Slovakia). 

Kiska, who is based in Bratislava, has represented the ADF on a number of issues in Europe, including highlighting religious persecution in Belarus; Williams (whose “Christian Concern” organisation works with Nadine Dorries MP) is also close to the ADF, as I’ve blogged here. Katya Smyslova, meanwhile, has just completed a term of service as Regional Representative of the Haggai Institute in Eurasia – this organisation promotes the evangelistic leadership philosophy of a certain John Edmund Haggai, described as “a visionary, a Christian world statesman, and an evangelist and a master of the pulpit”.

A follow-up piece has further details about the ECPM event:

Last Thursday, June 23, ECPM held a symposium on ‘Liberty of Faith and Conscience’ in the Palace of Parliament in Bucharest, together with the Ecumenical Prayer Group of the Romanian Parliament. Participants from all over Europe attended the lectures that addressed the theme from theological, social and political perspectives.

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Here’s a very strange article from ASSIST Ministries:

One World, said by some to arguably be the best book ever on the New World Order, and until now a trade paperback, has just been released as an eBook and is available worldwide.

“Every important outcome that this book has predicted has come true,” said its author, Tal Brooke, President and Chairman of The Spiritual Counterfeits Project (also known as SCP, Inc.,) an Evangelical Para church organization located in Berkeley, California.

…According to the author, convenient and planned crises and costly wars of occupation have been key gateways to bringing in the New World Order.

…Brooke went on to say, “Consider this piece of shrouded history revealed in One World. Harvard economist John Kenneth Galbraith leaked the following – that banking insider Bernard Baruch walked Sir Winston Churchill out on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange the very morning of the Great Crash.

“Churchill was brought to witness the crash firsthand on October 24, 1929, because it was desired that he see the power of the banking system at work. This required timing only possible with insider knowledge. Churchill soon after became Prime Minister of Great Britain, having failed on numerous attempts before.”

ASSIST is a bit credulous when it comes to faith healers, and it has on one occasion lapsed into conspiracy-mongering, but this is the first time I’ve seen full-throttle tin-foil hat material on the site.

The main point is so obvious that it’s hardly worth making: Churchill did not become Prime Minister “soon after” 1929 – he became Prime Minister more ten years later, following a series of events that are completely explicable without recourse to a conspiracy theory about Bernard Baruch. Brooke has presumably got his information from Pat Riott’s 1994 book The Greatest Story Never Told: Winston Churchill and the Crash; according to Buckley Barry Barrett’s review in Churchill: a Concise Bibliography, “a great number of people across a wide swath of the political spectrum could consider the work akin to a tabloid and paranoid potboiler of libertarian fundamentalism”.

Brooke is famous for being an ex-follower of Sathya Sai Baba, against whom he went on to write an exposé in 1970s – other works include Harvest, with Chuck Smith. As with Walid Shoebat, it seems that once the novelty value that had brought him to prominence wore off, he maintained his audience with ever-expansive claims to expertise. According to an author blurb on Amazon:

Tal Brooke, today, is the President & Chairman of SCP, Inc, a Berkeley-based research organization and think-tank. A member of the Society of the Cincinnati, he has authored nine books and his work has been recognized in Marquis Who’s Who in the World and Who’s Who in America as well as The International Who’s Who of Authors. He has won three first place EPA awards in a nationwide contest. A graduate of the University of Virginia and Princeton, Tal Brooke has spoken at Cambridge (8 times), Oxford (4 times), Princeton, Sorbonne, Berkeley, the University of Virginia, and the University of Edinburgh.

As a rule, someone who goes on about memberships and entries in directories in lieu of any real academic recognition is a crank.

Brooke is not just a promoter of conspiracies: he’s also the subject of a conspiracy theory himself, concocted by Hindus annoyed by his anti-Sai Baba polemics. It is claimed that his father was a diplomat named Edgar Duffield Brooke, who worked for the US Information Agency in the 1960s, and that this explains Tal Brooke’s writings.

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An anti-EDL Twitter feed (@everythingedl) has a screen-capture of cyber-bully and pseudo-activist Charlie Flowers railing against him and against a Facebook group called “Exposing Racism and Intolerance Online”. As ever, it doesn’t take long before Flowers turns the subject to me, and he and a crony (both middle-aged men, by the way) are quick to turn to some feel-good schoolyard abuse:

Flowers complains that “Exposing Racism” unfairly accuses him and his associated Facebook groups (the “Cheerleaders” and “NiceOnesUK”) of being EDL front groups – I don’t think they are, although Flowers’ objection is somewhat hypocritical given his insistence that I’m an “SWP operative” (I’m not).

Flowers, as I’ve written previously, claims to be an activist against Islamic extremism, and he’s managed to persuade a few people who should know better that he’s on the level. However, he’s really a vigilante rather than an activist, using the internet to act out a self-righteous fantasy of self-empowerment through cyber-harassment and abuse. Back in 2009 he began a campaign of harassment against Tim Ireland at the behest of bogus “terror-tracker” Dominic Wightman; when he belatedly realised that Wightman had manipulated him, he then claimed instead that his inspiration had in fact been Nadine Dorries MP’s complaints against Tim – Flowers continues to insist on this, despite the fact that Dorries has in the meantime been discredited (The full background is here). Flowers’ need to find a self-justification for acts of cyber-harassment is pathological: for a while in 2010 he made an alliance with Farah Damji, sending abusive and threatening messages to individuals (particularly women) who had made complaints to the police about her.

Flowers objects to me because I stood up for Tim, and his claim that I’m a left-wing extremist is the explanation he gives to his friends for why I deserve his abusive attention. It also in his mind justifies the creation of around a dozen anonymous abusive blogs, which have appeared over the past few months and which he has spammed around Twitter in the middle of the night. One struggles to imagine the thought process: here is a mature adult, the wrong side of 40, using sockpuppets to disseminate abuse and lies through the internet, and he somehow thinks that isn’t a shameful and debasing way to carry on.

Particularly unpleasantly, Flowers has also sought to make links with some Nigerian neo-Pentecostals who believe that children can be witches. The plight of “child-witches” is another subject that I’ve written about, and as a result a church in Nigeria has created a website dedicated to abusing me and other activists on the issue. Given that Flowers claims to be against religious extremists (and falsely claims I’m in cahoots with MPACUK), one would have thought he would have given this church a wide berth  – however, the temptation proved too great, and he duly created a sockpuppet Facebook account with a Nigerian name and visited the church’s website to advertise his abusive blogs. I was genuinely surprised he was willing to go that low.

Flowers also created a Twitter feed in the name of the church and used it to spam-advertise the blogs, but he gave himself away by adding abusive comments about some other people and by making reference to the “Exposing Racism” Facebook page (background here). Any lingering doubts about his authorship were removed a few days ago, when the same Tweets appeared on his @BlackEyedGirls Twitter feed, although he deleted them the morning afterwards (perhaps he’d logged into the wrong account by mistake).

One unknown factor is whether Flowers maintains any association with Dominic Wightman. Like Flowers, Wightman also sees the internet as a place of self-empowerment through fantasy, and like Flowers he also uses sockpuppets to create abusive websites – this was proven recently when I asked a friend of Wightman about an abusive song posted anonymously to YouTube in the autumn of 2009; Wightman (who appears in the song affecting a very poor fake Northern accent to disguise his voice) quickly removed it after I made contact. Publicly, Wightman and Flowers purport to dislike each other, but there’s a mutual interest, and a mutual willingness to engage in behaviour that most people grow out of at the age of fourteen or so.

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French report claims organisers lied to secure venue

A couple of days ago I noted a “summit” which was supposed to take place in Strasbourg today; according to the conference blurb:

The human rights organizations Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) will hold their first-ever transatlantic summit in Strasbourg, France, on July 2.

…The confirmed list of speakers at the summit includes Pamela Geller, the popular blogger and columnist who publishes the acclaimed AtlasShrugs.com blog… Robert Spencer, a bestselling author and internationally renowned Islamic expert; the noted activist SIOE Director Anders Gravers; Roberta Moore of the Jewish Division — EDL; Conny Meier of the German human rights group Pax Europa; frontrunning Bulgarian presidential candidate Pavel Chernev; and others to be announced soon.

That was before Moore announced her resignation from the English Defence League, and Pamela Geller came under fire for agreeing with Moore’s claim that the EDL has been “hijacked” by “Nazis” (Geller has since reaffirmed her support for the EDL, while also denouncing those who dared to criticise her).

However, potential awkwardness has been avoided, as the conference has been now cancelled. According to French news site 20 Minutes, the organisers had secured the venue, the Foyer de l’Etudiant Catholique (FEC), by claiming that they were holding a literary conference; once it was discovered that this was a lie, access was barred:

L’extrême droite a renoncé à parader samedi à Strasbourg, peut-on lire sur des blogs. Des organisations européennes et américaines appelaient à « un premier sommet transatlantique anti-islamisation ». Après une manif place de la République, un meeting était prévu en présence, notamment, de membres du mouvement Résistance républicaine et du Bloc identitaire. Prétextant une conférence littéraire, ses instigateurs avaient réservé une salle au Foyer de l’étudiant catholique. La supercherie démasquée, l’accès leur a été interdit.

According to a site called L’Islam en France, in a post dated to 26 June, the subject of the supposed “literary conference” was Danish poetry:

Les organisateurs en question avançaient masqués, prétendant qu’il s’agissait d’une soirée consacrée à la poésie danoise!

L’Islam en France also claims that FEC cancelled the booking six hours afterL’Islam en France had publicised the event.

20 Minutes, however, quotes Pierre Cassen, one of the scheduled speakers – according to his account, the event was cancelled because the police could not provide sufficient security. But if that were the case, surely Geller would have treated us all to a thundering denunciation of the French police by now?

UPDATE: My mistake: because the SIOA website hadn’t been updated I had assumed Geller had nothing to say on the subject. In fact, though, had I loaded up her site and waded through her tirades I would have seen a posting she’d made on the subject on 28 June, in which she claims that the conference was closed down by “the EU”. No mention of a bogus “Danish poetry” booking, though.

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From the website of Sheffield Cathedral:

An exhibition by the University of Sheffield’s Department of Biblical Studies is set to throw new light on the King James Bible.

Telling Tales of King James’ Bible opens Tuesday 3 May 2011 in Sheffield Cathedral and will be open to the public until the end of June. The exhibition is part of a series of events organised by the University to mark the 400th anniversary of the King James Bible, which will include free open lectures from the former Poet Laureate Andrew Motion, MP Frank Field, and other prominent cultural commentators.

…Telling Tales of King James’ Bible will run from Tuesday 3 May 2011 until 30 June 2011, before moving to Westminster Abbey…

The date for the move to Westminster Abbey coincides with an international meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature (SBL), due to take place in London.

However, Jim West, Adjunct Professor of Biblical Studies at the Quartz Hill School of Theology and an SBL member, now reports that:

Though the Abbey had agreed to host the Sheffield KJV Project display during the upcoming International meeting of the Society of Biblical Literature, they have now, virtually at the last minute, backed out!  Leaving the Project in the lurch and desperately seeking an alternative.

And why have they backed out?  To allow pictures of the Royal Wedding to remain on display a bit longer…  Sad.  Outrageous really!…

In an update, Jim explains that St Bride’s off Fleet Street may be an alternative venue. It’s certainly an appropriate choice – the church is known as the “church of the press, printing, journalism”, and there’s an exhibition in the crypt which includes (if I recall correctly) a Breeches Bible.

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I recently enjoyed listening to Rev Dr Jane Shaw’s series of talks on mysticism on Radio 3, so I was interested to see that she has written a book on Mabel Barltrop and the Panacea Society. Frances Stonor Saunders has a review in the Guardian; the final paragraph is amusing:

A curious omission from Shaw’s otherwise exhaustive volume is any mention of the society’s finances. As it’s a registered charity this information is readily accessed on the Charity Commission’s website, which reports a long-term investment portfolio worth £20m, in addition to £3m in own use assets, presumably the Bedford properties. This represents a nice wad for Jesus when he reappears (will he go for government bonds or dip a toe into futures?). The society’s published accounts for the past five years show donations of nearly £500,000 to something called the Prophecy Project. Based at New College, Oxford, its co-director from 2003 to 2011 was Jane Shaw. She is also named on the Charity Commission website as a trustee of the Panacea Society. Oh.

Also on the list of trustees is Canon Professor Christopher Rowland; it is curious to see two academically-minded Anglican priests acting as trustees for an apocalyptic and heterodox religious group known for eccentric beliefs such as that the Garden of Eden was in Bedford (a 2001 Independent interview also describes one member expressing some racist religious views, to the embarrassment of another). Here is the full list of the “aims of the charity”:

1. Work related to the advancement of the religious beliefs of the Society as defined by its original charitable objects.
2. Sponsoring the writing, publication, and distribution of religious works associated with the Visitation.
3. Undertaking the duties and responsibilities incumbent on being the custodian of Joanna Southcott’s Box of Sealed Writings.
4. Sponsoring research by recognised academic institutions into the history and theology of the Society and its antecedents.
5. Supporting the work of the Church of England in advancing the Christian Religion especially in the Bedford area, or in aspects of theology or liturgy that relate to the Society’s specific interests.
6. Supporting recognised local organisations dealing with the relief of sickness within the Bedford area.

It makes more sense when one reads to the end of the list: it is of course sensible to have clergy and academics overseeing how money is disbursed in relation to aims 4-6, and I strongly doubt that they have anything to do with aims 1-3. A more general statement on the Society’s website downplays the Society’s distinctive beliefs in relation to the charity even more, giving as aims:

(a). To advance the Christian Religion (and in doing so the Council may have regard to the teachings of Joanna Southcott and her successors)
(b). in furtherance of Christian principles to relieve both poverty and sickness and to advance education both generally and in the production, publication, and dissemination of religious works.

In 2007, there was an acrimonious dispute about the running of the charity – lawyers were called in, as well as a certain Derek Stuart, described as a “religious detective” who operates “Sword Investigations”. Bedfordshire on Sunday has more.

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As Darcy Jones notes, Roberta Moore of the English Defence League Jewish Division has decided to step down, complaining about “Nazis” in the EDL:

Dear all, I have been made a great offer yesterday and therefore I am stepping down from the Jewish Division in order to take up that offer, which will take most of my time. While we are aware that the EDL is doing a fantastic job, but there are elements within that have hijacked the EDL for their own Nazi purposes…

I do wish the EDL the best of luck in this fight, as they surely need it. And I sincerely hope that the leaders will get the strength to squash the Nazis within, for they will destroy this movement if allowed to remain, and thus lose the fight against the Islamization of their countries…

It should be noted that the main EDL’s relationship with its “Jewish Division” has been strained for some time, ever since Moore made links with Victor Vancier’s Jewish Task Force.

On Saturday, Moore was due to speak for the EDL Jewish Division in Strasbourg alongside Pam Geller and Robert Spencer’s Stop Islamization of America;  the SIOA website has the details:

The human rights organizations Stop Islamization of America (SIOA) and Stop Islamisation of Europe (SIOE) will hold their first-ever transatlantic summit in Strasbourg, France, on July 2.

…The confirmed list of speakers at the summit includes Pamela Geller, the popular blogger and columnist who publishes the acclaimed AtlasShrugs.com blog… Robert Spencer, a bestselling author and internationally renowned Islamic expert; the noted activist SIOE Director Anders Gravers; Roberta Moore of the Jewish Division — EDL; Conny Meier of the German human rights group Pax Europa; frontrunning Bulgarian presidential candidate Pavel Chernev; and others to be announced soon.

So, should the “transatlantic summit” (a) stick with Moore, who now apparently represents no-one except herself; (b) ask for an alternative EDL speaker, despite Moore’s claim that the movement has been “hijacked” by “Nazis within”; or (c) now decline any association with either Moore or the EDL?

Back in December, Moore promoted the theory that “Satan’s face” can be discerned within the marble patterning on the Dome of the Rock.

UPDATE: Geller has announced that she has ditched the EDL:

I am sure regular Atlas readers have noticed that some time ago I stopped covering their events — I was waiting to see how things would shake out. I was waiting to see if the forces of good would recapture the heart and soul of the group. Alas, it was not to be. 

Now that the person whom I most trusted in the EDL, Roberta Moore, has resigned, as she was increasingly uncomfortable with the neo-fascists that had infiltrated the administration of the group, I too am withdrawing my support from the EDL.

As ever, Robert Spencer is following her lead.

UPDATE 2: Geller’s support for the EDL is back on:

…I spoke to Tommy Robinson at length; he issued his statement to SIOA. Considering his statement, I am not withdrawing my support for the EDL, but I continue to be deeply concerned and will be watching how events unfold.

Prior to this, some of Geller’s “counter-jihad” associates had denounced her for having rejected the EDL; an “open letter” appeared on the Gates of Vienna, signed by the likes of “Eeyore” of Vlad Tepes, KGS of Tundra Tabloids, Diana West, and Elisabeth Sabaditsch-Wolff:

…To help heal the damage that has been done, we insist that you apologize in a public forum to the English Defence League.

Its leaders and members are heroes, and their organization is widely considered a beacon of hope in Europe. All Europeans who resist the Islamization of their countries look to the EDL for inspiration, and all of them stand in solidarity with it in its struggle.

We strongly request that you reconsider your deplorable words and withdraw them.

Geller responded to this aggressive demand in kind:

Ned May, who is “Baron Bodissey” of Gates of Vienna, is the Machiavellian plotter behind this attack on me – and he himself described himself as such in the EDL forum/channel. 

… he has even gone so far as to include peoples’ names who never agreed to be on the list. Holger Danske and Henrik Raeder Clausen of Europe News wrote me to assure me that their names were ill-used: they had never agreed to sign on. I am told that Hans Erling Jensen, whose name also appears on it, is angry about this Open Letter also.

One who did sign on voluntarily, however, was KGS of Tundra Tabloids. I was genuinely surprised when I saw that he had added his name to the list. To me, this is particularly galling. Without going into details, I took a lot of heat covering for KGS and maintaining confidentiality back in 2009 when “Baron Bodissey” began falsely accusing of violating that confidentiality. But I kept silent so as not to expose KGS. And this is how I am repaid.

Then there was a revealing incident, in 2010, when the “Baron” and many of the signers of this Open Letter falsely accused Spencer and me of being responsible for YouTube’s deletion of a video. They had taken video from our inaugural AFDI conference at CPAC in 2010 of Allen West’s speech and subtitled it in various European languages. They had taken the video without the knowledge or consent of the person who filmed it, Pamela Hall – who thereupon complained to them…

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From the Australian Telegraph:

A VISITING American evangelist who claims healing powers has walked from a NSW court without even a fine despite driving 110km blind drunk and crashing into a parked car.

Self-claimed “prophet of God” Jason Hooper – touring with Hillsong protege Ben Hughes – declared God had forgiven him for his double-shot whisky binge that ended in a mangled wreck on the Mid North Coast.

…Police revealed Hooper had allegedly been drinking double shots of scotch before driving his rented Commodore to drive to Coffs Harbour. At 4pm, he slammed into the parked Hyundai on the Pacific Hwy, Macksville.

Given these cirumstances, the name of the religious ministry which brought Hooper to Australia is somewhat unfortunate:

Hooper is on a working visa and is in Australia an east coast church tour with Pour It Out Ministries.

Hooper got off lightly: he could have been sent to prison, but the magistrate, a certain Wayne Evans, called the crash “a sobering offence” and accepted that Hooper’s tearful explanation that he had acted out of character due to “financial and other pressures”. Evans’ decision has not been popular, though, and Hooper has perhaps made things worse for himself with a self-serving statement:

“I’ve worked it out with the Lord. I was wrong,” Hooper told The Sunday Telegraph.

The website for Pour It Out Ministries is currently closed and “under construction”, which again leaves an unfortunate impression. The ministry is run by two revivalists, named Ben and Jodie Hughes; Ben Hughes studied at Hillsong International Leadership College in Sydney, although this blog suggests that media reports calling him a “Hillsong protegé” are exaggerated.

Hooper has a troubled background: according to his testimony here, he was “saved” after he had been “shot in both legs” and sent to prison; he claims to have then led a mass healing revival within the prison itself. He later became a revivalist with Rick Joyner’s MorningStar Ministries, although he is currently “itinerant”. This link to Joyner could be useful, though: Joyner has played a central role in “restoring” errant evangelists such as Jim Bakker and Todd Bentley. Joyner, Bentley and Hooper appeared together in an event entitled “Power and Glory of the Kingdom” back in February.

Of course, humans are weak and you can find scandals involving religious professionals in any setting. However, such occurrences are particularly problematic for Joyner’s strand of neo-Pentecostalism: those who lead revivals are supposed to be empowered by God to heal the sick and to convey prophetic messages from God – Joyner himself recently prophesised an earthquake on the west coast of the USA, to be followed by a general economic collapse. That doesn’t mean that these especially-empowered evangelists are without sin, but one struggles to see how this self-image can be compatible with an act of reckless endangerment through alcohol abuse. Leaders of the movement are not shy about claiming to have supernatural insight into the future prospects and inner character of particular evangelists, as was seen when C. Peter Wagner gushed over Bentley.

Hooper’s website is currently still available, although parts of the site have been removed. Google cache, though, shows endorsements from Ryan Wyatt of Abiding Glory Church & International Ministry Base; Jeff Jansen of Global Fire Ministries International; Paul Keith Davis of WhiteDove Ministries; Bobby Conner of Eagle View Ministries; James Levesque of Engaging Heaven Ministries; and from Rick Joyner:

Jason has been a key part the MorningStar team for several years. He provided important and effective leadership in his position as manager of our Multi-media department, and was instrumental in leading two of the most powerful moves of the Holy Spirit in our history. He is a revivalist with a powerful miracle and healing ministry and helps to raise the faith barometer wherever he goes.

Hooper also lists some “pastoral recommendations”, from Tim Stevenson (Horizon Church, New Zealand), Trevor Baker (Revival Fires, UK – “Jason Hooper was recommended to our church and ministry by Rick Joyner at Morningstar”); Jacob Martin (the Hope Centre); and Andrey Shapovalov (Tranformation Center Church, Seattle – he’s an ally of anti-gay activist Ken Hutcherson). Some of these names are also listed as his “friends in revival”, alongside Todd Bentley, Robin McMillan (a MorningStar pastor), Jake Hamilton (of Jesus Culture, “a new breed of emerging revivalists”), Jerame Nelson (Living at His Feet Ministries), and Ben & Jodie Hughes. One wonders if in the Hughes’ case, “ex-friends” would now be a better description

(Hat tip: Bene Diction)

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A few days ago, I blogged on a BBC documentary about sex abuse in schools run by the Roman Catholic Rosminian order; the programme explained how the head of the order in the UK, Father David Myers, had declined to participate in the programme in the following terms:

…I have decided to follow the advice given in the book of Lamentations: ‘It is good to wait in silence’ 3:16

However, Myers has now apparently had enough of “waiting in silence” and has isssued a statement:

In response to the BBC documentary programme “Abused: Breaking the Silence” some points should be clarified.

From the very beginning, attempts were made to be open and transparent. Apologies were offered, without reservation on behalf of my brethren to those who suffered. Such abuse was a grievous breach of trust to them and their families. We are appalled by what was done to them. We accept that we have moral and pastoral responsibility to the survivors for the harm done to them.

When these instances of abuse were brought, the police, the hierarchy and Church safeguarding officials in the risk management of the accused were immediately informed. Information came to light in September 2009, of abuse at Grace Dieu dating from 1954 to 1958 and Soni from 1954 to 1974. Representatives of the survivors’ group were invited to a meeting. They said that that they wanted an acknowledgment of what was done to them and an apology, and not publicity.

Regarding the following specific issues raised by the programme:

Fr Bernard Collins. After an extensive and thorough investigation, we have found no evidence in our records that Fr Collins was moved to Soni in the knowledge that he had abused boys at Grace Dieu. Indeed, the records indicate that it was a long planned move.

Fr Kit Cunningham. On 8th February 2010, writing to all those who had contacted me about abuse, the email concluded, saying that if they wanted to issue a press release, it was “their call”.

In response, one of the leaders of the survivors’ group said explicitly that they did not want any press involvement. This position had not changed when Fr Kit Cunningham died in December 2010.

When obituaries were being written about Fr Cunningham I responded truthfully to those journalists who contacted me who had heard the story that he had returned his MBE. I confirmed that he had, and the reasons why.

However, the newspapers concerned chose not to publicise this.

The tone is again somewhat unfortunate and defensive, and parts are beside the point. In fact, the victims acknowledged in the programme that Myers’ initial response had been genuine, and that they had appreciated the meeting which he arranged for them in London: the problem was that this attitude changed when the topic moved on from reconciliation to financial restitution.

As for Myers’ willingness to explain why Cunningham had returned his MBE, that appears to have come after the obituaries had appeared, not “when they were being written”. According to Peter Stanford, who wrote the Guardian‘s obituary (here):

In my obituary of him in January, I wrote as I found. A week after publication I received an email. “It is good that he is remembered for his good,” my correspondent began, “but there are many who will remember the other side of Kit… a sexual, physical and mental abuser. It would be good if you just let him rest in peace, but I finally reacted as there was too much praise going on for this deviated creep.”

…My first (shameful) instinct was to wonder if my correspondent might be mistaken, but he had included in his note a means of testing his claim. “Suffice it to say,” he wrote of Fr Kit, “he returned his MBE to the Queen last year when his past demons came to haunt him.” That was something I could check easily. It was true.

According to the BBC documentary, the issue of Cunningham’s MBE first came up after an abuse victim left a comment under a blog-post on the Daily Telegraph website on 12 December; that paper’s obituary was published the next day, and so the comment wouldn’t have been chased up there in time for that.

And it seems that while Cunningham may have been willing to explain when asked about the MBE, he was less frank when dealing with general enquiries. According to the Telegraph‘s Damian Thompson:

Fr Cunningham received warm obituaries when he died last December aged 79. That’s not a surprise: many a party was enlivened by his benevolent, boozy personality and he set high standards of liturgy at Ely Place. I myself have been the recipient of his kindness; when vague rumours of unspecified misbehaviour began to circulate immediately after his death, I advised the Catholic Herald that he should not be judged guilty without evidence. The paper scaled down its planned tribute to this “legendary” priest while it tried to find out what the fuss was about; it contacted the Provincial of the Rosminians in England, Fr David Myers – but he said not a word about any paedophile offences and, as a result, neither did the Herald or the rest of the media. We were quite deliberately kept in the dark.

The author of the Herald‘s obituary, Francis Phillips, apparently knew nothing until he listened to BBC Radio’s Sunday programme two days before the documentary aired.

As for Collins’s sudden departure for Africa following a complaint of sex abuse, the  BBC documentary stated the order’s archives are closed to outside scrutiny, so we can’t judge for ourselves whether this was indeed simply a coincidence –  that’s not to suggest that Myers is being dishonest, but sometimes documents can be interpreted in more than one way.

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From USA Today:

Some travel industry experts say Delta Air Lines is being treated unfairly — and is the victim of misinformation — because of its pending marketing alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines.

Delta was criticized by some Jewish and Christian leaders Thursday after a Religion News Service story hit the Internet questioning the two airlines’ partnership because Saudi Arabia, like some other Mideast countries, has some restrictive visa and entry policies.

…Delta doesn’t fly into Saudi Arabia, but critics expressed concern that its SkyTeam marketing alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines — which flies between the USA and Saudi Arabia — would develop into a code-share agreement. That would enable each airline to sell one another’s tickets.

…”Delta does not intend to code share or share reciprocal benefits, such as frequent flier benefits, with Saudi Arabian Airlines,” said Delta spokesman Trebor Banstetter.

According to the Religion News Service report (which has since been pulled):

U.S. Jews not able to fly on Delta flights to Saudi Arabia

JERUSALEM (RNS) Jews and Israelis, or passengers carrying any non-Islamic article of faith, will not be able to fly code-share flights from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia under Delta Air Line’s new partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines that is set to begin in 2012.

…Saudi Arabia bans anyone with an Israeli stamp in their passport from entering the country, even in transit. Many Jews believe the kingdom has also withheld visas from travelers with Jewish-sounding names.

Religious items such as Bibles that are not related to Islam may be confiscated at the airport.

Colby M. May, senior counsel of the American Center for Law and Justice, a conservative legal group founded by religious broadcaster Pat Robertson, said his office is trying to determine if the agreement runs afoul of U.S. law…

The story was also whipped up into a ludicrous hysteria by WorldNetDaily, via help from actor-turned-politician-turned talk-show host Fred Grandy:

…The issue first was presented to Congress, the public and others by talk radio host and former U.S. Rep. Fred Grandy,whose own battle against discrimination was documented when his former radio station demanded he tone down criticism of Islam on his program. He then left the station.

Grandy and “Mrs. Fred,” – Catherine – recently were interviewed by Talk 1200 show host Jeff Katz about the controversy, which was described as “outrageous.”

“Creeping Shariah? Now [it is] jetspeed Shariah. Hat’s off to Delta. It looks like Delta will be the first Shariah-compliant airline in the United States,” Catherine Grandy said.

Katz noted, “As a Jewish man, I might not be able to fly on Delta Air Lines in the future.”

…”This creeping Shariah, economic jihad, gets you everywhere you turn,” Catherine Grandy said. “This is just not right. I’m sure this will be tested.”

…Already, in the United Kingdom, Shariah courts are given authority to resolve certain issues outside of ordinary judicial proceedings. Islamic law, as it is practiced in many Muslim countries, includes penalties such as the chopping off a hand for thievery and execution for adultery and abandoning Islam.

Yes, one minute Delta Airlines has a marketing alliance with Saudi Arabian Airlines; the next people in the USA will be being stoned to death for adultery. There’s a lot to be said for keeping  critical pressure on companies doing business with repressive regimes such as Saudi Arabia, but this kind of hyperbole is self-defeating (I recently blogged on the UK situation – which the above also misrepresents – here).

The claim that Saudi Arabia bans Jews derives from material posted on the official website of the Saudi Supreme Commission for Tourism in February 2004. The Jewish Virtual Library has more:

…The site says the policy of the Saudi Arabian government is to deny visas to “Jewish People.” After this anti-Semitic language was discovered and publicized by the media and Congressman Anthony Weiner, the Saudi government removed the offensive language claiming that it was a “mistake.” Rep. Weiner noted that the Saudi record of anti-Semitism suggests otherwise and subsequently sponsored a bill that would control the distribution of visas to Saudi citizens until the President certifies that the Saudis do not discriminate on the basis of religious affiliation or heritage when issuing visas.

According to the USA Today report:

Rabbi David Saperstein, director of the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism, says he’s known a lot of Jewish-American business men with Jewish-sounding names who were provided visas to enter Saudi Arabia and were not “harassed” during their stay.

“But I think the far more significant problem is that, according to the State Department, no religious practices other than Islam are allowed to be practiced openly in Saudi Arabia,” he says...

But while the Religious News Service has pulled the story, WorldNetDaily and its allies smell blood:

…Larry Klayman, founder of the government watchdog Judicial Watch and now of Freedom Watch USA,was succinct.

“I, for one, will sue Delta Air Lines,” he told WND. “This is outrageous, repugnant and illegal.”

He said Delta has joined President Obama in “kowtowing” to “nefarious Muslims.”

His reference was to the famous image of Barack Obama greeting the Saudi king with a bow.

In contrast to George W. Bush, who in 2006 wrote to King Abdullah appealing for Saudi Arabian Airlines to buy 43 Boeing jets.

(H/T Get Religion)

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