I’M TEMPTED TO START AN ANGLICAN-CLERGY RISIBILITY WATCH, but this item convinces me that I don’t have the time to do it justice:

A Church of England bishop has attacked “sentimental” Christmas card portrayals of the Nativity, saying that Jesus’s family were asylum seekers and the three Wise Men were part of an assassination plot.

He means a “Jewish assassination plot,” of course. Santa dead, the Three Wise Men assassins — what’s next from these guys? Mary Magdalen as a “transgressive performance artist?” Hell, that would make more sense.

UPDATE: William Sjostrom emails a link to a post that says I’m wrong to call this pronouncement “risible” and after reading it I think he’s right. He also has a link to the original letter, which gives a bit more context than the Telegraph story, which seems to have given it as PC-ish a spin as possible.

Sorry. I guess I was primed for risibility by various other things that have come out lately, which kept me from giving the good Bishop the benefit of the doubt. I stand corrected. [Shouldn’t you wait 8 years to post this correction? — Ed. No, that’s the old media way!]

ANOTHER UPDATE: Kathryn Jean Lopez has linked to Sjostrom, too. She says: “the Telegraph may have just been looking to make trouble (and I took the bait!).” Me, too.

YET ANOTHER UPDATE: A reader points out that the press release was revised today (see the upper left-hand corner), suggesting that just possibly the Telegraph wasn’t spinning as hard as it seems. Anybody got a copy of the original version?