Until 12 months ago, Father Rod Bower was a "little known" Archdeacon preaching from a tiny Gosford parish 70km north of Sydney with a congregation of about 20. Thanks to social media and an 'anything goes' attitude to religion, he has made quite a splash of late, "posting" messages that are unrelated to Christianity and are enough to make the Archbishop of Canterbury choke on his marmalade toast. The billboard posts are supposed to be thought-provoking but are often decidedly cryptic and only Bower himself understands the logic behind them. One such example is a recent message saying 'bullets are made from words'.
Bower's billboard postings are also strikingly pro-Muslim so you'd be forgiven for thinking he was one. I wouldn't be surprised to see him sporting the hijab on world hijab day in February. He is one of many who have climbed onto the 'ISIS isn't Islamic' bandwagon recently and refers to the Kouachi brothers as criminally insane. Anything but Islam, right? Well that's just great Rod, let's pick on the mentally ill. They're a nice soft target aren't they? As if the mentally ill have not already been stigmatized enough since the Sydney Siege.
There was no evidence that Monis was mentally ill and nor is there any that the Paris shooters were either. As Sam Harris says, exactly what is it that these zealots have to do to prove to the world that they are motivated by religion? And if we place the
various groups on a continuum with non-violent groups at one end and radical groups at the other, where do we draw the line? Hizb ut-Tahrir? Hamas? The Taliban? Al-Qaeda? The concept is ridiculous at best.
Bower has made a meme of himself with some convoluted argument that anyone who questions Islam is an extremist themselves and places yet another sign outside the church stating 'buy halal' and 'bless the burqa'. Bless the burqa! Really? Bless a symbol of women's oppression? Bless a tribal sack which, not only pre-dates Islam but has a history that is about as far removed from the divine as you can get?
The history of the veil was more along the lines of peer pressure than divine revelation. Mohammad's friend Umar Al-Habab continually pressured Mohammad to reveal veils for women. When Mohammad was not forthcoming he followed Mohammad's wives to the toilet making his presence obvious until Mohammad miraculously announced the required revelation. So if Rod wants to bless a garment whose history comes from dirty old men hanging around the ladies’ loo, then good luck to him. I, for one, will not be turning 'my' back on women.
@StaunchA - Australia
Rod is God? Or maybe he's just a Useful Idiot