In October last year, a debate was organised in London around the motion that 'The Catholic Church is a force for good in the world'. The pannel was made up of Anne Widdecombe and Archbishop John Onaiyekan supporting the motion and Christopher Hitchens and Stephen Fry speaking against it.
I have only just come across Fry's contribution to the debate but it is absolutely superb and so I have decided to include it in those page. It lasts about 15 min and has been truncated in two by Youtube; see below:
For reference at the start of the debate the audience was asked to vote for or against the motion.
The full debate including the other speakers, a Q&A bit and closing statements can be found on the Intelligence2 website.
I have only just come across Fry's contribution to the debate but it is absolutely superb and so I have decided to include it in those page. It lasts about 15 min and has been truncated in two by Youtube; see below:
For reference at the start of the debate the audience was asked to vote for or against the motion.
| before | after | change | |
| for | 678 | 268 | -20% |
| against | 1102 | 1876 | +34 |
| undecided | 346 | 34 | -14% |
The full debate including the other speakers, a Q&A bit and closing statements can be found on the Intelligence2 website.
Stephen Fry is superb. I admit to generally having mixed feelings about him: overexposed, neurotic, ‘silly clever’, overbearing. But his contribution here is of the highest calibre and beautifully delivered.
ReplyDeleteI felt two aspects were particularly powerful: his intellectual brilliance in examining the past and his heartfelt personal insight as a gay man.
I wonder how many of us listened to the other three speakers?
Thank you for linking to this. I admire his eloquence on this subject.
ReplyDelete