Barry Duke, the Angry Atheist

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   “The curriculum had already drawn tensions among the county’s religious parents, with some worrying about appropriateness and arguing the material…

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   As someone who produced dozens of nativity plays as a teacher and a Sunday School leader, that title ‘A Gay…

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   The defence of a Christian view never seems to be settled by debate: exchange of facts, reference to historical events.…

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   But …… Rwanda is a safe place: Parliament says so.https://www.legislation.gov.uk/ukpga/2024/8/contentsSafety of Rwanda (Asylum and Immigration) Act 2024 S 2 Safety…

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   Religion can survive only on the most unquestionable assumptions. The statements made on Sundays on the BBC as if they…

GIDDY with anticipation of the coronation next month of Charles III, for weeks royalist blockheads have lapping up a flood of flapdoodle pumped out UK media outlets regarding the outrageously over-priced spectacle.

We know, for example, that people are being exhorted to prepare “Coronation Quiche” for the event … at a time when the country is in the grip of an egg shortage.

We also know that the extravaganza will be heavily seasoned with religious bilge—the vacuous “defender of faith” is, after all, the “Supreme Governor of the Church of England”—but it’s only today that we learned that the coronation procession will be led by a heavy silver thingamajig that includes two shards of the True Cross.

The splinters that were allegedly chipped off the cross used in the crucifixion of Jesus were gifted to Charles by Pope Francis to mark the occasion, according to The Independent (£).

The Pope could easily spare the relics because they are as common as toothpicks.

By the end of the Middle Ages, according to Wiki, so many churches claimed to possess a piece of the True Cross, that John Calvin is famously said to have remarked that there was enough wood in them to fill a ship:

There is no abbey so poor as not to have a specimen. In some places there are large fragments, as at the Holy Chapel in Paris, at Poitiers, and at Rome, where a good-sized crucifix is said to have been made of it. In brief, if all the pieces that could be found were collected together, they would make a big ship-load. Yet the Gospel testifies that a single man was able to carry it.

The fragments have been incorporated into the Cross of Wales, which will be seen by millions as it is carried into Westminster Abbey on May 6.

Both pieces are set into the larger silver cross behind a rose crystal gemstone so they can only be viewed up close.

Image via YouTube

The Roman Catholic Archbishop of Cardiff and Bishop of Menevia, Mark O’Toole, above, said:

With a sense of deep joy we embrace this cross, kindly given by King Charles, and containing a relic of the True Cross, generously gifted by the Holy See.

It is not only a sign of the deep Christian roots of our nation but will, I am sure, encourage us all to model our lives on the love given by our Saviour, Jesus Christ.

Interesting factoid: the coronation coincides with the 86th anniversary of the destruction of the German dirigible, the Hindenburgh, which claimed the lives of 36 on May 6, 1937.

Hat tip: Stephen Harvie.

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If you spot any typos in this report, please alert me via email: freethinkered@aol.