Cherry-picking God’s advice
In the December 2013 edition of the Anglican Journal, a front-page profile titled “The irreverent, reverent Don Cherry” prompted me to write a letter to the editor, which was subsequently published in February 2014. In it, I decried the paper’s decision to give credence to a man who regularly offends multiple groups of our population and is given a pass because he attends a parish in Mississauga and can, among other things, recite passages from the Book of Common Prayer. In the article, Cherry says he turns to God for all his important decisions. I shook my head at some of the advice his God has given him.
Now, six years after that article was published—years during which Cherry continued to glibly besmirch numerous individuals and groups and to which viewers, Anglicans included, shrugged their collective shoulders and said, “That’s just Grapes, get over it”—he has finally been called out and his platform ripped out from under him.
I, for one, look forward to enjoying Hockey Night in Canada without this shock jock raising my blood pressure.
Judith Butler
Toronto
As a role model, Cherry is the pits
Some time ago, there was a fawning appreciation of Don Cherry as an Anglican published in the Journal.
He never was a good role model in his starched collar and off-putting manner, but this last round is enough.
Could I request that he no longer be held up as a “moral example?” In his public persona, he goes against everything that the church claims to value.
He may “play well” with a subset of Anglicans, but he is more likely to drive people away from the church than he is to attract them, now that times have changed.
John Whitmore
Hillsborough, N.B.
