Christian Love? Female Vicar Target of Hate Mail, Arson

In July, 2005, Reverend Yvonne Hobson became vicar in the village of Paul, Cornwall. She may have expected some resistance to the presence of a female vicar because there is still debate and disagreement in the Anglican Church over whether women should be permitted to have such religious authority over men. For nearly a year things went smoothly, but in mid-2007 matters took a decidedly nasty and dangerous turn.

Then she began receiving anonymous letters expressing hatred for women priests. They were sent to her home, to the church and left in the vestry there. Police were called in to investigate. And last month, after a particularly frightening letter, Bill Ind, the Bishop of Truro, launched an appeal for information from the pulpit. Weeks later, a fire was started in the log basket on the porch of Mrs Hobson's £350,000 vicarage, near Newlyn. Someone had left a candle burning in the logs, in what police believe was a symbolic act.

Source: Daily Mail

In case you're wondering, the problem is clearly that Hobson is a female — the absence of male genitalia is, for someone, sufficient reason to hate her:

The threatening letters "expressed anger at Mrs Hobson for being a female priest", said DC Simon Stone of Penzance Police. "We are taking them extremely seriously.' According to diocese spokesman Jeremy Dowling, one was left in a private church room where Mrs Hobson found it. We do not lock our churches and somebody came in and left a particularly frightening piece of hate mail in a vestry. A public announcement was made from the pulpit suggesting that anonymous letters had been received by Yvonne.

"The letters stopped after that but in the past two weeks activities seem to have started again. It is uncertain whether this is personal attack or an attack against women priests in general. There are no other incidents of male or female clergy being subjected to this kind of attack in Cornwall, although there have been instances in other parts of the country. Sometimes people feel God has deserted them and take it out on the priest."

So, the presence of a woman in the pulpit means that God has left — and of course the appropriate response is to threaten the woman until she is so afraid that she leaves... or kill her in an arson attack if she doesn't take the hint. What's the likelihood that an atheist group would behave in such a manner towards a female leader? Indeed, how many completely secular organizations could be expected to behave in such a manner (at least anymore)?

I find it interesting that a bishop had to come in to beg for information about who has been doing these things... and was apparently ignored. Someone knows, and others surely have strong suspicions, but no one is talking. Communal solidarity and misogyny are apparently stronger forces than basic human decency or respect for one's religious leaders. It's atheism, though, that lies at the root of violence and atheism which prevents people from being truly moral.