The Church Offers Moral Leadership and Goes for the Real Issue: Garden Gnomes

bath | miscellaneous | news report Wednesday November 12, 2008 17:03 by EXC

I kid you not. You think there were more pressing issues?

Yup, according to reports in the media the Diocese of Bath and Wells has banned Garden Gnomes.

The media report says;

The gnomes, along with plastic flowers and other decorations such as teddy bears, have been called "inappropriate" and tacky by the Diocese of Bath and Wells. The church banned the garden figures from Wrington and Congresbury cemeteries in Somerset, and have said they will remove any that they find as part of new guidelines issued by the Chancellor of the Diocese, Worshipful Timothy Briden. A spokesman for the Diocese of Bath and Wells said: "There is no such thing as a real gnome so why should we have such unnatural creatures in churchyards?"

I guess it is up to them what they allow and don't allow in their churchyards, but it sounds a bit silly. IMHO, there is no such thing as angels, but they have not banned them from churches? Anyway this action has brought Diocese of Bath and Wells to the attention of popular US-based 'godless liberal' blogger Pharyngula who writes with tounge in cheek;

The bigotry is going too far. Now the Diocese of Bath and Wells has banned garden gnomes from their cemeteries. What are we to do with the poor wee buggers, then? Let them rot in the streets?