DEEP THINKING FROM IAN McKELLEN ON THE SYRIAN REFUGEES FLOODING EUROPE: The veteran actor (Lord of the Rings, X-Men) spoke yesterday with Larry King in his post-CNN retirement home at a streaming video site called Ora TV, founded by King and New York Times financier Carlos Slim:
Sir Ian McKellen comments on the influx of Syrian refugees into Western nations. McKellen says these people should ‘be looked after’ until they can return to their home country and that we should trust authorities to weed out any individual who poses a threat.
Umm, do most of them want to go home? I wasn’t aware they viewed Europe as a big temporary vacation spot while the unpleasantness back home sorts itself out – and it doesn’t sound like Angela Merkel views the refugees as temporary guests, either.
And second, has McKellen asked the refugees for their thoughts on homosexuality and gay marriage?
Is it true that when you stay at hotels you tear out the Bible page that condemns homosexuality?
Ian McKellen: I do, absolutely. I’m not proudly defacing the book, but it’s a choice between removing that page and throwing away the whole Bible. And I’m not really the first: I got delivered a package of 40 of those pages — Leviticus 18:22 — that had been torn out by a married couple I know. They put them on a bit of string so that I could hang it up in the bathroom.
Well, everyone has their own way of responding to publications whose writing they disagree with.