Desmond Schools Rowan

Archbishop Desmond Tutu talks tough to Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams and the Anglican Church (in England, that is) because of their equivocation on granting full sacramental status for gays and lesbians. He saves his most withering criticism for those who still insist that homosexuality is a lifestyle:

It is a perversion if you say to me that a person chooses to be homosexual. You must be crazy to choose a way of life that exposes you to a kind of hatred. It's like saying you choose to be black in a race-infected society.

Hat tip to Norris Battin

Editor's note: Barry Fernelius, who read the BBC article more carefully than The Episconixonian did, notes that it was published in 2007.

Ace Ventura Meets The Body Of Christ

Director Tom Shadyac learns that the Rt. Rev. Desmond Tutu hasn't seen any of his movies -- and reckons it a good thing.
Hat tip to Kathy O'Connor

Imagining An Arab Israel

Just back from a visit to the Middle East along with Desmund Tutu, Jimmy Carter says many Palestinians are taking the long view:

"A majority of the Palestinian leaders with whom we met are seriously considering acceptance of one state, between the Jordan River and the Mediterranean Sea," Carter wrote in an op-ed piece in The Washington Post.

"By renouncing the dream of an independent Palestine, they would become fellow citizens with their Jewish neighbors and then demand equal rights within a democracy," he explained. "In this non-violent civil rights struggle, their examples would be Mahatma Gandhi, Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela."

Carter noted that in doing so, Palestinian leaders were taking into consideration current demographic trends.

He said non-Jews were already a slight majority of total citizens in this area, "and within a few years Arabs will constitute a clear majority."

Carter says the two-state solution is still preferable. The full text of his Post op-ed is here.

Hat tip to Mike Cheever

Credibility Through Conversation

In an interview with the "Atlantic," Archbishop Desmond Tutu displays good Anglican pragmatism:

Obama has indicated that he might be willing to sit down with Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Does that seem appropriate to you?

That is not just appropriate, it’s necessary. Belligerence is not going to get us very far. He would garner a lot of support from those who are saying they are opposed to the United States’ aggressive attitude if he says, “I am willing to sit down and talk.” And then if that guy remains intransigent, then Obama will be better able to call on the support of the rest of the world. And if action has to be taken, there will be a great deal more sympathy than there was in the case of Iraq.