Gun Control, Immigration and Senator Hagel: The Manifestations of Cultural Paranoia in our Current Political Debate

Column by Bishop John Shelby Spong on 7 February 2013 4 Comments
Please login with your account to read this essay.
 

Question

Answer

IMPORTANT RETRACTION NOTICE!!

To my readers around the world but especially to my Australian Readers,

Last week in the Question and Answer part of this column I responded to a letter from John Riingen from San Diego in which he asked me to comment on a statement that he said had been issued by the Prime Minister of Australia, Julia Gillard.  I proceeded to do so. I am sure that my letter writer had no idea that it was a hoax.

It now appears that Ms. Gillard never said those things and indeed that this particular quotation has floated on the Internet for some time and has been attributed to at least three Australian Prime Ministers. The original author appears, actually, to have been an American.

We do fact checks on every column, but have never extended that discipline to the letters of those who write to this column. In the future before I use any letter that quotes another person directly I will verify that quotation or not use that letter.

I thank all of you who wrote to make me aware of this mistake (and there were many!!) and I apologize to the Prime Minister and to the people of Australia in particular. Australia has been one of my favorite countries in the world to visit.  We have been to that wondrous country nine times.  I would never knowingly offend my many Australian friends in any manner. I hope this letter will help to put this quotation in the dustbins of history where it surely belongs.

~John Shelby Spong

 

Comments

 

4 thoughts on “Gun Control, Immigration and Senator Hagel: The Manifestations of Cultural Paranoia in our Current Political Debate

  1. WordPress › Error

    There has been a critical error on this website.

    Learn more about troubleshooting WordPress.