The lunatics are running the asylum

I was driving back from the dentist this morning with a numb jaw, listening to Radio 4. One of the news items (not yet on the BBC web site) was mind numbing in its stupidity. Silver Street Baptist Church and St James Church of England in Taunton, Somerset have banned a yoga group for toddlers from their church halls on the grounds that it is un-Christian. The Rev Tim Jones, vicar of St James did his calling and religion little good in the interview coming across as a narrow minded and fairly dumb bigot. He argued that Yoga originates in Hinduism, so teaching toddlers music and movement will result in their failing to realise that spiritual enlightenment can only come from a personal relationship with Christ. Not only that their parents might be influenced by observing these practices. You would have thought he was talking about a satanic right, with naked witches, human sacrifice and personal appearances by Beelzebub rather than a bunch of toddlers moving to music.

I don’t really buy into Hell as a concept, although I rather like Old Harry’s Game (available on iTunes) with its Popes’ enclosure; their eternal torment it to be perpetually eight months pregnant. However I am pretty sure that if it does exist there is a place for the Rev Jones staked out.