You’ll know Eric MacDonald if you frequent this website or Butterflies and Wheels: in both places (and God knows where else) he leaves thoughtful and critical comments about religion. And Eric knows whereof he speaks: he’s an ex-Anglican priest and a strong advocate of assisted suicide. Many of us have urged him to start his own website, and now he has. Reflecting his interest in euthanasia, it’s called Choice in Dying, and is dedicated to his late wife, Elizabeth, who was afflicted with MS and chose to take her life at the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland (Eric tells the story on the website). I suspect that the backlash from his church and the Canadian authorities about this assisted suicide helped wean Eric from his faith.
Anyway, as you might guess from having read his posts, Eric doesn’t confine himself to assisted suicide, but deals as well with other problems of faith. The good news is that he’s posting regularly; the bad news is that he may now be too busy to leave his wonderful comments on our own websites. Bookmark his site, and leave some comments.
Ophelia Benson pointed us to Eric’s blog recently, and it is indeed excellent. I also recommend it highly.
I’ve just read a few entries and it’s all good stuff. Thoughtful, insightful, and at times biting. Definitely worth a bookmark.
Well, thank you Jerry. But I won’t stop commenting here. I have found WEIT so refreshingly honest and hauntingly similar to my own thinking on religion that I shall not abandon the opportunity of sharing my thoughts here as I have been doing in the past.
The reason I started up my blog is that, until a short while ago, I was managing a blog for Dying with Dignity (Canada), and the new Executive Director, who has an MA in “transformative spirituality” (whatever that is), decided that she had the right to censor what I put up. One of her first acts was to pull one of my posts.
So my association with Dying with Dignity came to an abrupt halt. While I support the aims of the organisation, I cannot support a policy of censorship which would have made it virtually impossible to oppose the one thing that stands in the way of assisted dying laws in Canada, namely, religion in its protean guises.
Opposition to assisted dying in Canada is run, almost sigle-handedly, by the Roman Catholic Church. It has more so-called ‘pro life’ organisations than there are churches in the country, even though all of those churches, with the exception of the Univeralist Unitarian church, oppose assisted dying themselves.
An MA in ‘transformitive spirituality’? Holy crap! What a dreadful waste of time. Pity it didn’t transform her into a free thinker.
There must be something very ancient and hard-wired about the urge to censor speech, it happens so often. Maybe it’s related to the idea of magic spells, speech is powerful and dangerous, ergo magic. So speech must be regulated. Or something like that.
I watched “The Suicide Tourist” when it aired on Frontline last spring. It was incredibly powerful and moving. It must take incredible strength to give your beloved such a gift.
Can I just get this off my chest?
“E I E I O”
There. Thanks so much for the link. It’s a terrific blog.
Grooooaaan. It took me a minute to understand what you did there.
Props for getting there first.
Eric won’t stop commenting. He knows that’s just not an option.
:- )
Ah, yes, and I’m beginning to realise just what kind of commitment I may have made! I really didn’t understand, since the DWD blog attracted no one at all. But, you’re right, I won’t stop now.
Ah no I meant commenting here and (most important of course) at my place! You can do what you like about your own. :- )
Thanks for this info. Good site. There are many who are moving in this direction. Two others to consider including
John Shelby Spong http://www.johnshelbyspong.com
Don Cupitt http://www.doncupitt.com
Eric Macdonald has a blog, e-i-e-i-o
And on that blog he had some posts…
E I E I O
With a comment here and a comment there . . .
Here a troll, . . .
Seriously? What am I doing? Sorry!
With logic here and reason there,
Here a fact, there a cite, everywhere a good point
We could write many verses, but let’s go read his posts instead…
Agreed. And already done.