A cowboy operation...

So the Church of England has voted to allow female bishops.

I'm not CofE, I'm not religious and to be honest, it will not affect me in any real way.

From an equality point of view, it's a cracking move and for women who want to follow that path it is undoubtedly good news. (After my post on Harriett Harman's equality nonsense, I'd like to point out she wasn't exactly burning her bra in an equality protest against the church, she certainly doesn't have the balls for that!)

But I have always had an issue with 'reform in the church' (and by 'the church', I mean all religions, though usually I make this argument regarding the Catholic church).

If the church believes in something, then fine, believe in it. Whether their views are popular, right or wrong, old fashioned or whatever, I don't care. They are the church's beliefs and I can't criticise them for their genuine beliefs (though I can certainly disagree).

For example,
The Catholic church, for centuries has said "This is how you should live your life, no ifs, no buts, this is the way as taught by the bible." If you divert from how we say you should live your lives, you shall go to hell, be exiled, killed. They ruled a vast swathe of the earth, scaring the shit out of people with their instructions of how to live their lives, warning of the consequences if they didn't obey.

What really gets to me about the Church is when they change these 'beliefs'/rules to suit the times. This is what makes me think the whole idea of organised (crime) religion is an absolute sham. If you compare what the Catholic Church was like five hundred years ago to how it is now, then you will see a massive, MASSIVE difference - they are essentially two totally separate organisations when it comes to their beliefs, what is allowed, and who can do what within the church. The new one and the old one, really only have one common denominator, admittedly quite a big one, the idea of GOD. But what we are supposed to do for/by him now and what it was five hundred years ago mean that they are not the same thing.

Think about some religious examples...

"No homosexuals" recently changed to adverts on TV saying 'Actually, you are welcome'

'No method of contraception whatsoever' was changed to 'Oh, ok, we've found one way that we'll let you 'do it', the rhythm method.'

And 'Women cannot be ministers, or representatives of the cloth in any way', and now they're becoming bishops.

Now I'm not saying I think that gay=wrong, contraception is good or bad or that women should/shouldn't be allowed. What I'm saying is that these have been some of religion's deep, strongly held beliefs, and yet, they changed. which means, why should we trust you this time?

It's like the Daz adverts you see, a new one every year, saying 'New Daz cleans everything perfectly'. Then they show you a comparison with old Daz, which still leaves stains but the new one doesn't, it gets your clothes whiter-than-white. But next year, even newer Daz is the one getting all the stains out and the previous Daz just doesn't cut it anymore.

To me, the only thing that is left of these religions, compared to the same institutions from hundreds of years ago is that 'There is a God and we should all worship Him (or, in the spirit if debate, Her)'.

And why does it get to me so much? Cos it's like a shitty shallow politician changing his beliefs and his policies just to stay in power. Some call it opportunism, populist. In fact, I could probably sift through the blogosphere and find thousands of comments slamming politicians for flip-flopping to either side of an issue, performing 'embarrassing u-turns' etc which leaves the party, PM, MP or MSP with less credibility than before. If he does it often, on his/her deepest beliefs, we couldn't take them seriously, in fact we don't. If the Tories suddenly announced that "We hate the idea of private education", Cameron would not be en route to a big win, because we know that's not what he belives, he just wants to win. Yet, when it comes to religion, because that tetchy thing called 'God' is involved, nobody in a position to make a difference is ballsy enough to point out what a big fucking waste of time it all is. They have now become one of these cheap political parties that will say whatever it takes to get bums on seats, which in turn, means money. The bottom line is...the Church is becoming less popular and they are now just whoring out their beliefs in exchange for money.

If you are a carpenter, and nobody needs carpentry, your business will inevitably close down. If you, as a carpenter, then start selling pizza, then people will still come into your shop. But because the sign says Capenter, this doesn't mean your shop is a successful carpentry business, it's just a place where as long as you sell something, anything that people want, you'll make money. But after ten years of selling pizzas, or computer games, please don't keep running round saying you're a carpenter. Also, not being a chef (or Italian) means that the pizzas will probably also taste like shit. And this, to me, is what the drivel that organised religion spouts out, shit.

However, the Church is onto a winner with this religion lark, because the whole system is based on faith. This is the same 'faith' that has convinced many people to kill themselves through cults because of their 'faith' in God, so it's no big surprise some people will continue to buy into it when you just change a few small rules at a time.

Some call it 'modernisation'.

Reform or die springs to mind.

What Gordon would do for such faith in him at this time.

So all in all, congrats to the future women bishops. Problem for me is not who works in the shop, but what you're selling.