“World’s Leading Anglican Weekly Newspaper” demonstrates contempt for the handicapped:

Oliver Kamm writes:

See if you can spot the non sequitur in this unhinged editorialising by the Middle East correspondent of the Church Times, the newspaper of the Church of England:

The assassination of the Hamas leader, who was disabled, has intensified Arab anger over what is perceived as Israel’s arrogance — and its uncritical support from the United States.

If I were a murderous bigot in a wheelchair, I’d be pretty offended at the insinuation that I was any less culpable for my acts of terror merely because I was physically incapable of carrying them out other than through an intermediary. . . .

Remember: He wasn’t disabled — he was differently able. Really, he was.

     Read the whole post, which has a good deal of more substantive analysis. Thanks to Jerome Sternstein for the pointer.

UPDATE: Reader Lewis Maskell says the Church Times is not the paper of the Church of England, and quotes this:

The Church Times, founded in 1863, has become the world’s leading Anglican weekly newspaper. It has always been independent of the Church of England hierarchy.

I don’t know who’s right (I assume the quote is literally correct, but that’s not inconsistent with the paper’s being in practice and informally the organ of the Church), so I thought I’d mention both sides. If you know more details on this, please let me know. I’ve also changed the post title from “Church of England demonstrates contempt for the handicapped” to “‘World’s Leading Anglican Weekly Newspaper’ demonstrates contempt for the handicapped” just in case Kamm was mistaken and Maskell is correct, since I’d rather err on the side of caution on this.

FURTHER UPDATE: Oliver Kamm confirms that Lewis Maskell is right: “Lewis Maskell is quite correct on this: I ought to have described the Church Times as the world’s principal Anglican newspaper, published independently, rather than as the newspaper of the Church of England. Apologies to Eugene for my error: I shall put an amendment on my own blog.” Many thanks to Mr. Maskell for the correction.