Religion and Ethics Forum

General Category => General Discussion => Topic started by: Shaker on June 03, 2016, 08:48:39 PM

Title: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 03, 2016, 08:48:39 PM
http://goo.gl/Gk78si

Quote
A priest has been suspended after he admitted assaulting a police officer and a paramedic on a drunken night out.

The Reverend Gareth Jones swore at officers and claimed he had diplomatic immunity from the Vatican when he was arrested two weeks ago.

A paramedic found him passed out in his clerical clothes on Charing Cross Road, in Covent Garden, central London.

He had drunk three bottles of wine, several pints of beer, a number of gin and tonics and vodka.
Highbury Corner magistrates heard he kicked a paramedic twice in the leg before punching him and trying to bite him.
I deplore attacks upon people doing such a valued and valuable public service ... but a pissed priest trying to bite a paramedic ...
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 03, 2016, 08:59:26 PM
How on earth is it possible to drink that much in one session?

Or am I just a bit of a wuss?
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 03, 2016, 09:07:01 PM
Practice  :D
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 03, 2016, 09:14:10 PM
If I tried to drink like that all I'd be practicing was toilet cuddling.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 03, 2016, 09:15:24 PM
I never thought I'd use this phrase, but it's different for girls* ::)

* In terms of alcohol actually it is, literally.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 03, 2016, 09:21:30 PM
The worse thing for me to drink is anything with fruit juice or squash anywhere near it. Vodka and orange, snakebite and black...not good.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 03, 2016, 09:22:58 PM
How come? One of your five a month, surely.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Gonnagle on June 03, 2016, 09:24:51 PM
Dear Shaker,

Should be mandatory training, I will write to the CoE, Vatican and the CoS, see if they can put it in the training manual for all considering the calling, no use preaching about the demon drink if you have not experienced it first hand, hmmm!  What about sexual depravity, I am sure the top bods have contacts ::) ::) ::)

Gonnagle.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 03, 2016, 09:27:35 PM
How come? One of your five a month, surely.

Toilet cuddling likelihood increases massively.

Think I'm ok with snakebite without the black but I can't quite remember.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 03, 2016, 09:54:31 PM
I am surprised he isn t dead, I would be after all that booze.  Toilet cuddling I would do after a fraction of his intake.
It was quite funny him saying he had Vatican immunity, hilarious.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Owlswing on June 03, 2016, 11:37:52 PM

With that much alcohol inside him it probably just as well that no-one lit a match or cigarette lighter! He would have prematurely experienced the fires of Hell - up close and personal!
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 04, 2016, 08:13:12 AM
Disgusting behaviour for anyone, whatever their calling!
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Humph Warden Bennett on June 04, 2016, 09:49:07 AM
I am surprised he isn t dead, I would be after all that booze.

So would I, although I don't think that I would get past the second bottle of wine.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 04, 2016, 09:55:11 AM
What a bunch of lightweight Lionels we've got here!
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Nearly Sane on June 04, 2016, 09:59:05 AM
What a bunch of lightweight Lionels we've got here!

Good, we have a culture where heavy drinking is too prevalent, in part because we think it reasonable to mock people who don't drink or drink sparingly.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 04, 2016, 10:14:10 AM
Good, we have a culture where heavy drinking is too prevalent, in part because we think it reasonable to mock people who don't drink or drink sparingly.

As someone with firsthand experience of the damage done by heavy drinking I disagree with that. Binge drinking among the young may be influenced by peer pressure, but leaving aside the fact that we are a bunch of mature (honest) people for whom this is just banter batted back and forth, heavy drinking is a very different creature.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Nearly Sane on June 04, 2016, 10:20:42 AM
What bit of 'in part' did you not understand? I've seen many theoretically 'mature' people persuaded into drinking more by this sort of peer pressure. Will it make them all heavy drinkers, no, of course not. But is it part of a culture where drinking to excess is seen as acceptable, yep.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 04, 2016, 10:30:47 AM
So you are talking about binge drinking, not heavy drinking, and in a situation where people are drinking, not talking on a message board.

What happened to taking personal responsibility? If someone is drinking so much that they try to bite paramedics, or terrify their family come to that, the only responsible thing to do is face up to it and try to deal with it, not blame advertising or a bunch of twats in the pub.

Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Nearly Sane on June 04, 2016, 10:37:04 AM
No, I'm not talking about binge drinking though that forms part of a culture of heavy drinking. And yes, i'm obviously talking about drinking as opposed to listing on a message board, not sure what point you are trying to make there. (though there are posts in here which seem soaked in gin)

And noting that we have a culture where drinking excessively is seen as more acceptable than being teetotal is taking nothing away from personal responsibility. Rather it's arguing that part of that responsibility is for people not to indulge in the sort of behaviour which contributes to that culture.

Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 04, 2016, 11:28:39 AM
My husband and I watched a programme about alcohol, and how much one should drink in a week, and what happens it you exceed the recommended 14 units.

Having watched that programme, I am so very glad my husband and I are feather weights where alcohol is concerned. Neither of us has ever been drunk in our lives.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Humph Warden Bennett on June 04, 2016, 11:32:10 AM
My husband and I watched a programme about alcohol, and how much one should drink in a week, and what happens it you exceed the recommended 14 units.

Having watched that programme, I am so very glad my husband and I are feather weights where alcohol is concerned. Neither of us has ever been drunk in our lives.

I have. Lots of times. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

It was what happened afterwards that I didn't like.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 04, 2016, 11:32:29 AM
My husband and I watched a programme about alcohol, and how much one should drink in a week, and what happens it you exceed the recommended 14 units.
... it having been 21 units until all of a few weeks ago.

It's 35 in Spain. I suppose they have different livers over there ::)
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 04, 2016, 11:34:28 AM
I have. Lots of times. And I enjoyed every minute of it.

It was what happened afterwards that I didn't like.

I would detest feeling out of control, and would certainly not like a hangover
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Harrowby Hall on June 04, 2016, 12:53:35 PM
When I have alcoholic drinks I enjoy them, but they don't actually mean anything to me and if I never have another alcoholic drink in my life then I would not miss it. I have been drunk a few times (when I was younger) and I did not enjoy the experience but it did not prevent me from drinking the next time I was with my mates.

And this, for me, is the nub of the matter.

I see drinking essentially as a social experience. I dine with others and I have wine - and I enjoy it. Since my wife is dead and my children have left home, being at home is not a social situation. If friends come round then I'll open one of twenty or so bottles of wine I have in my larder and enjoy it with them. Drinking the wine just because it's there is a non-starter.

People seem to think that because I own a house in France it must be because of the availability of wine. I don't really understand that mode of thinking.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 04, 2016, 01:19:18 PM
We have never been to pubs just for a drink, it just isn't our scene. We have only gone to a pub for a meal, and whoever wasn't driving might have a drink.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Gonnagle on June 04, 2016, 01:38:22 PM
Dear Chuntering for chunterings sake,

Who's that bod who travelled Scotland and said he hated the Scots, was it Boswell, anyway, I remember reading that he said ( well something like this ) if only we could all drink to a certain level then we would live forever, that's my type of imbibing, a small drink to put you in a certain frame of mind, sadly, myself included, we think that having another will increase this wonderful frame of mind, your wistful ramblings become drunken warbling's, will I ever learn, not me, I am but a novice, that Priest, I think he tried the crash course and failed miserably.

Gonnagle.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Shaker on June 04, 2016, 01:52:52 PM
Dr Johnson - although Bozzy was with him.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 04, 2016, 02:06:10 PM
So would I, although I don't think that I would get past the second bottle of wine.

Me too Humph but I've had my moments - and managed to make myself quite ill, thankfully with no lasting effects but it was horrible while it lasted.  Never again, a little glass of wine occasionally is my limit.

I daresay I fit into the ''lightweight'' category but that is only because I was so bad after drinking too much.  That certainly taught me a lesson.  Like you, it is no hardship to go without booze because I don't like it that much and spirits are poison to me.

Like floo, I'm glad my husband is no drinker, he'll have a pint if we go out somewhere and can hold his drink, he's a big chap, but booze doesn't bother him.   We usually only go to pubs for a meal nowadays but when we were younger we both went to pubs, with friends or together once we started going out, and pubs were quite friendly, social places.  I suppose they still are, my son and friends still go to the pub sometimes.  If there is live music, it's a bonus.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 04, 2016, 02:08:39 PM
I dislike eating anywhere but at home, especially if there is music on, so our kids usually take my husband out for a meal in a pub these days.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 04, 2016, 02:12:39 PM
You don't usually get music in a restaurant (sometimes there is a bit of background, no live stuff), but pubs have live music occasionally - that's pubs for drinking, not the gastro bit.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 04, 2016, 02:16:21 PM
You don't usually get music in a restaurant (sometimes there is a bit of background, no live stuff), but pubs have live music occasionally - that's pubs for drinking, not the gastro bit.

Music of any sort does my head in.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 04, 2016, 10:35:02 PM
Yes I know.  Not everyone's cup of tea.

I was reading about the priest who got so drunk.  26 years old and married, Anglican priest.  He has quite a bit of previous, all for OTT stuff! 
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 04, 2016, 11:16:58 PM
Oh, I could tell you some stories about naughty Anglicans. Like the trainee priest who decided to sow some wild oats before his course began. Got found out when one of the oats germinated and the woman informed his tutor.

Then there was the 'very nice' priest of my acquaintance who had an affair with a parishioner for whom he was offering marriage guidance - to her and her husband. Didn't get defrocked as the sex wasn't penetrative.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 05, 2016, 12:46:50 AM
Charming!
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 05, 2016, 08:12:04 AM
I know of a priest who spends more time on the 19th hole of the golf course than going about his parish duties, and is often rather worse for wear! He is married man, but groped a woman I know well. They don't appear to be able to dispense with his services.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 05, 2016, 10:02:17 AM
Presumably he can still dispense services, floo.

The priest who is the subject of this thread, though, is a young chap who seems to make a habit of being manically outlandish.  It's all quite strange.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: floo on June 05, 2016, 12:13:27 PM
Presumably he can still dispense services, floo.

The priest who is the subject of this thread, though, is a young chap who seems to make a habit of being manically outlandish.  It's all quite strange.

The chap I am talking about gets others to do his services whenever possible, pretending something very important has come up, when actually he is on the golf course!
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Hope on June 05, 2016, 04:25:09 PM
Oh, I could tell you some stories about naughty Anglicans. Like the trainee priest who decided to sow some wild oats before his course began. Got found out when one of the oats germinated and the woman informed his tutor.

Then there was the 'very nice' priest of my acquaintance who had an affair with a parishioner for whom he was offering marriage guidance - to her and her husband. Didn't get defrocked as the sex wasn't penetrative.
So, in a way, no different to many other human beings.  After all, that is what Christians are; ordinary flawed human beings who acknowledge their flaws and seek to repair/change them.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Owlswing on June 05, 2016, 05:48:32 PM
So, in a way, no different to many other human beings.  After all, that is what Christians are; ordinary flawed human beings who acknowledge their flaws and seek to repair/change them.

You are joking! Aren't you! Oh, no, of course not - you are talking about your church!
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Brownie on June 05, 2016, 06:26:55 PM
Hope is right though, we are all flawed human beings and clergy are no exception.  We expect impossibly high standards from them which in the main they do try to live up to but at times it must be very stressful.  Everyone is down on them like a ton of bricks if they appear to falter.  Yet good people can do bad things, we all know that.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Owlswing on June 05, 2016, 07:05:01 PM

Hope is right though, we are all flawed human beings and clergy are no exception.  We expect impossibly high standards from them which in the main they do try to live up to but at times it must be very stressful.  Everyone is down on them like a ton of bricks if they appear to falter.  Yet good people can do bad things, we all know that.


Yeah, but if, say, a doctor, a soldier, a policeman, or anyone in any other profession screwed up as badly and as often as this bloke seems to have done they would have been fired yonks ago. But no, he is clergy and must be allowed his little foibles no matter how much they bring discredit on his calling.

 
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Nearly Sane on June 05, 2016, 07:11:01 PM
Yeah, but if, say, a doctor, a soldier, a policeman, or anyone in any other profession screwed up as badly and as often as this bloke seems to have done they would have been fired yonks ago. But no, he is clergy and must be allowed his little foibles no matter how much they bring discredit on his calling.


Ah yes, policemen, Birmingham 6, remind me of the sackings.
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Rhiannon on June 05, 2016, 07:15:53 PM
Clergy have little protection in law.

https://www.churchtimes.co.uk/articles/2015/1-may/news/uk/clergy-are-office-holders-not-employees-appeal-court-rules
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Owlswing on June 05, 2016, 07:36:05 PM

Ah yes, policemen, Birmingham 6, remind me of the sackings.


The Birmingham 6 claimed that they were forced to sign confessions. 'Claim' being the operative word.

The Inquest on thise killed in the Birmingham pub bombings has been re-opened, after too bloody long in my opinion, after it was adjourned for the B'ham 6 trials.

Considering what has happened as a result of the Hillsborough enquiry let's wait until the verdicts are in and see what happens then shall we?

Or, NS, are one of the ACAB Brigade?
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Nearly Sane on June 05, 2016, 08:00:12 PM
The Birmingham 6 claimed that they were forced to sign confessions. 'Claim' being the operative word.

The Inquest on thise killed in the Birmingham pub bombings has been re-opened, after too bloody long in my opinion, after it was adjourned for the B'ham 6 trials.

Considering what has happened as a result of the Hillsborough enquiry let's wait until the verdicts are in and see what happens then shall we?

Or, NS, are one of the ACAB Brigade?
Mmm Hillsborough, police honesty, maybe not something you might mention in terms of what happened in policing?
Title: Re: Now here's a priest to get behind
Post by: Owlswing on June 06, 2016, 07:49:15 AM

Mmm Hillsborough, police honesty, maybe not something you might mention in terms of what happened in policing?


Criminal proceedings are being prepared against the officrs involved, far too late, I agree but "better late than never".

Still in the ACAB Brigade I see.