Not singing from the same hymn sheet

I'm a pretty irreligious sort of guy. Sometimes, more God-fearing folk wonder why this is so and wonder, rhetorically why I have such a "problem" with religion (generally, like jesting Pilate, they will not stay for an answer).

Well, I freely admit that my problem is that I just don't get it. We've just had a couple of headlines which illustrate why I can't get my head round the religious world-view. Here in Britain, leaked letters from the Archbishop of Canterbury, show that he'd previously written that "an active sexual relationship between two people of the same sex might therefore reflect the love of God in a way comparable to marriage, if and only if it had about it the same character of absolute covenanted faithfulness". The Archbish has more recently been in the news for trying to appease conservative Muslims by suggesting that elements of Sharia Law should be incorporated into the British legal system and for trying to appease conservative evangelical anti-gay Christians in the Anglican communion, who'd been upset by the consecration of an openly gay Bishop in the USA, so the revaluation that he may have held liberal views on homosexuality in the past is seen as embarrassing in some circles.

Meanwhile, in Malaysia (a relatively "Liberal" Muslim country), the opposition leader Anwar Ibrahim has been charged with sodomy. Even consensual sodomy is considered such a serious matter in Malaysia that it can attract a prison term of up to 20 years.

God, the creator of everything which is, is apparently very concerned about what consenting adults do in private. Or maybe not, if you talk to the archbishop of Canterbury. Or then again, he might have changed his mind about that one (I did say he, not He, for He is infallable, obviously).

Although His representatives apparently worship the same being, they seem very confused about what He wants for us. He either wants gay people to be punished or loved, depending on who you talk to. Or maybe both, depending on what day of the week it is when you talk to the Archbishop of Canterbury. Sort that one out through inter-faith dialogue, suckers.

Or maybe in the wacky world of theology, where three can be one and a million angels may (or may not) be able to sit on the head or a pin such contradictions can be resolved through the process known in politics as doublethink. But in my world none of it seems to make much sense and His robed representative will have to try a lot harder if they really want to be taken seriously by those of us not indoctrinated into religion from childhood.