Jane Fonda and the Archbishop of Canterbury.
Jane Fonda is in trouble again. In trouble with the right wing media, and the liberal pundits.
Despite all the bogus claims that “America is a Christian country”, or “we are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition” (whatever that means!) we are an unforgetting and unforgiving people.
(Our present fascistic administration is closer to Mussolini and General Franco than it ever was to Moses or Jesus).
So what Jane said in Vietnam can never be forgotten or forgiven. If she appeared on national television and said “I love Jesus, America, and George Bush” - she would be criticised.
They are out to get you Jane!
This morning Jane Fonda was a guest on the NBC “Today Show”.
(This show used to be a half-decent news programme. Now it is filled with show-biz puff pieces and facile political analysis).
Ms. Fonda was talking about a play in which she is acting in New York City “The Vagina Monologues”.
The “sometimes prude” in me has never liked that title, but be that as it may.
During the interview, Jane Fonda used a word which is a “no-no” in America. It’s not a word which we like - a slang term for the vagina, beginning with the letter c….
It’s a word that is used in the play, and Jane Fonda, in an apparently unguarded moment, used it.
So much for that, and within ten minutes, the co-host of the show, one Meredith Vieira, was back on air to issue an apology.
Whether or not the apology was necessary is a moot point. But what she said was revelatory.
Speaking of the “Today Show”, Ms. Vieira said “We would do nothing to offend the audience”.
How pitiful. A decent journalist, and worthwhile news programmes will always offend the audience.
That’s the point of journalism and news - to relate the truth, even if it offends! To tell the story, whatever the cost.
We have become this semi-dictator fascist State precisely because reporters, journalists and news editors have been unwilling to offend - not the masses - but the oligarchy.
Much of our public reporting, written press and television news is designed not to offend the ruling classes.
Of course that’s why the good Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is in hot water. He dared to offend in a wonderfully nuanced and brilliant lecture on Sharia. And the press did not get it. Of course it cannot get anything which is a notch or two above a sound bite.
Rowan Williams has been pilloried for asking the right questions. His chief attacker is one Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for the Times of London. I wonder sometimes if she ever read his lecture.
It’s hard to decipher if Ruth is writing as a reporter, a columnist, or an erratic blogger. But she’s certainly been pissed off with Rowan Williams who “dared to offend”.
In about 1986 St. Stephen’s Parish, Pittsfield participated in a January “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” ecumenical service. The sermon was dreadful, a syrupy pablum.
Later that day I encountered a wonderful Roman Catholic Lawyer, George Crane, Esq. He had been at the service.
He asked me what I thought about the sermon. I muttered something innocuous - protective as I was of the preacher, a Congregationalist Minister.
“Let me tell you something” said George. “You preachers are always telling us that God loves us. When are you going to tell us what to do about it”.
From that moment I “dared to offend” in my preaching.
Some of this was rooted in my hubris.
Some in my attempt to be faithful to the Gospel.
And offend I did. But I have no regrets. I do not have a mind, mouth or tongue for pablum.
My brother Archbishop Rowan Williams is not Jesus. Neither am I.
But each of us is trying to follow the Jesus who dared to offend. He took on the religious and political oligarchies, and for that he died.
I admire Martin Luther, Mahatma Ghandi, Susan B Anthony, Mary McLeod Bethune, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Bishop Barbara Harris and so many others who dare to offend.
I despise the sycophantic American “news stars” who “would do nothing to offend the audience”.
The truth is offensive.
Despite all the bogus claims that “America is a Christian country”, or “we are rooted in the Judaeo-Christian tradition” (whatever that means!) we are an unforgetting and unforgiving people.
(Our present fascistic administration is closer to Mussolini and General Franco than it ever was to Moses or Jesus).
So what Jane said in Vietnam can never be forgotten or forgiven. If she appeared on national television and said “I love Jesus, America, and George Bush” - she would be criticised.
They are out to get you Jane!
This morning Jane Fonda was a guest on the NBC “Today Show”.
(This show used to be a half-decent news programme. Now it is filled with show-biz puff pieces and facile political analysis).
Ms. Fonda was talking about a play in which she is acting in New York City “The Vagina Monologues”.
The “sometimes prude” in me has never liked that title, but be that as it may.
During the interview, Jane Fonda used a word which is a “no-no” in America. It’s not a word which we like - a slang term for the vagina, beginning with the letter c….
It’s a word that is used in the play, and Jane Fonda, in an apparently unguarded moment, used it.
So much for that, and within ten minutes, the co-host of the show, one Meredith Vieira, was back on air to issue an apology.
Whether or not the apology was necessary is a moot point. But what she said was revelatory.
Speaking of the “Today Show”, Ms. Vieira said “We would do nothing to offend the audience”.
How pitiful. A decent journalist, and worthwhile news programmes will always offend the audience.
That’s the point of journalism and news - to relate the truth, even if it offends! To tell the story, whatever the cost.
We have become this semi-dictator fascist State precisely because reporters, journalists and news editors have been unwilling to offend - not the masses - but the oligarchy.
Much of our public reporting, written press and television news is designed not to offend the ruling classes.
Of course that’s why the good Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, is in hot water. He dared to offend in a wonderfully nuanced and brilliant lecture on Sharia. And the press did not get it. Of course it cannot get anything which is a notch or two above a sound bite.
Rowan Williams has been pilloried for asking the right questions. His chief attacker is one Ruth Gledhill, religion correspondent for the Times of London. I wonder sometimes if she ever read his lecture.
It’s hard to decipher if Ruth is writing as a reporter, a columnist, or an erratic blogger. But she’s certainly been pissed off with Rowan Williams who “dared to offend”.
In about 1986 St. Stephen’s Parish, Pittsfield participated in a January “Week of Prayer for Christian Unity” ecumenical service. The sermon was dreadful, a syrupy pablum.
Later that day I encountered a wonderful Roman Catholic Lawyer, George Crane, Esq. He had been at the service.
He asked me what I thought about the sermon. I muttered something innocuous - protective as I was of the preacher, a Congregationalist Minister.
“Let me tell you something” said George. “You preachers are always telling us that God loves us. When are you going to tell us what to do about it”.
From that moment I “dared to offend” in my preaching.
Some of this was rooted in my hubris.
Some in my attempt to be faithful to the Gospel.
And offend I did. But I have no regrets. I do not have a mind, mouth or tongue for pablum.
My brother Archbishop Rowan Williams is not Jesus. Neither am I.
But each of us is trying to follow the Jesus who dared to offend. He took on the religious and political oligarchies, and for that he died.
I admire Martin Luther, Mahatma Ghandi, Susan B Anthony, Mary McLeod Bethune, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Bishop Barbara Harris and so many others who dare to offend.
I despise the sycophantic American “news stars” who “would do nothing to offend the audience”.
The truth is offensive.
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