Willie the Barber and Tony Benn

Willie is a wonderful and eloquent young hairdresser who visits Resurrection House each Thursday morning to give free hair cuts. I admire him greatly.

The other week as we chatted, he asked me if I knew of Tony Benn. “Tony Benn”, I exclaimed, “he is one of my heroes, and at one time was a member of the British Parliament representing a Bristol (my home City) constituency”.

“How amazing” I thought, “that a young African-American barber should know about Tony Benn”.

We agreed that Mr. Benn is one of the last true Socialists.

I also admire (at a distance) Giles Fraser the Team Rector in Putney, London. I have a feeling that I’d like to attend his Church.

He recently hosted an Anglican/Roman Catholic dialogue at which Tony Benn was a speaker.

Here is something from Giles:


“I have a feeling the Pope pinched Jesus from me and moved him into the Vatican.” These words were spoken recently in my church — though not by me. They came from one of my political heroes, Tony Benn. His complaint about the Pope was that he uses Jesus for power; that he believes Jesus “gives him the right to tell me if I don’t obey him I’ll rot in hell”.

Right on Tony. And not just the Pope. The Fundamentalist/Evangelical Churches are also keeping Jesus hostage, and the Anglican Communion is moving in that direction in its response to Bishop to Bishop Gene Robinson.

Let Jesus Free!

http://www.allsaintsputney.co.uk/index.html


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

Comments

  1. Anonymous29 March 2008 at 21:19

    I too admire Tony Benn. Yes...Let Jesus Free!

    -Prakash, INDIA
    Premade Auto Graphic Kits

    ReplyDelete

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