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The Church is meant to be a servant, not a master. On
the night he was betrayed, Jesus shocked his disciples
by washing their feet – the task of a slave and an
important aspect of hospitality when people wore sandals
in the not, dusty Middle East. He challenged them (and
us) to show the same humility to each other. Sometimes,
in history, the church has forgotten this and become
domineering, especially when it is closely linked with
the state.
However, the issue is not straightforward. For example,
are the previous Archbishop of Canterbury and Bishop of
Oxford right to call for an end to the UK Blasphemy Law?
The issue is one of those that can elicit strong
emotions in some Christians - so much so that they do
not stop to think.
After all, in what sense nowadays is Britain a Christian
country? Recent polls show that 47% of Britons believe
in life after death and 42% pray. We are also still
legally a Christian country because the Church of
England is established by law. At the Coronation the
sovereign swears to uphold “the Protestant, Reformed
Faith established by law.” So it is logical that we have
blasphemy laws which are to do with Christianity. We
legally protect people from racist comments which cause
deep offence. Should we not protect millions of
Christians from blasphemous comments which cause deep
offence? That should not prevent legitimate debate and
comment which might be seriously critical of the
Christian concept of God. (By the way, the blasphemy law
is not to protect God. He has no problem protecting
himself and each one of us, blasphemers or not, will one
day stand before him to give account. Hence, in my view,
blasphemy is inadvisable!).
But, shouldn’t the C of E be disestablished? After all,
only a minority of British people go to church. Some
church leaders argue that it should. There are arguments
on both sides. But one implication of disestablishment
would be that parishioners would lose a number of legal
rights, including the right to be married in church or
the right to have the vicar take their funeral, etc,
etc. I think most people in this country, who don’t
normally go to church, like to know, in the back of
their minds, that the C of E is there and available
should they need it’s help and ministry. I think we
might live to regret disestablishment.
I am more concerned that there are very strong forces of
secularisation (including the militant fundamentalist
atheism of Richard Dawkins and Christopher Hitchens) in
our society that want to privatize, or debunk, all
religion. Sometimes there seem to be good reasons.
Religious schools are deemed to be divisive. Maybe some
Muslims schools are influenced by extremists and are
divisive. If so, they should be dealt with specifically.
It would be ludicrous to infer that therefore all
religious schools are divisive. Church schools, for
example, always have a lot of pupils whose families
don’t attend church regularly. They give a good
education and include adequate religious education. Some
secular schools do the same, but by no means all.
Personally, I think that anyone in this country who does
not have an adequate experience of religious education
is badly educated. Religion is a very important aspect
of life. And how can British children be properly
educated about our history and culture if they are not
properly educated about Christianity?
Another favourite is that if, as a society we overtly
celebrate Christian festivals such as Christmas we shall
offend people of other faiths. This is a myth. Dr
Indarjit Singh, Director of the Network of Sikh
organisations in the UK when asked “Do I object to the
celebration of Christmas?” calls it an absurd question.
He sends Christmas cards to Christians and eats
Christmas dinner! Dilwar Hussain, of the Islamic
Foundation in Leicester, commends the family aspect of
Christmas. In Jerusalem we used to have hundreds of
Jewish Israelis turn up (as welcome spectators) for our
Christmas services.
Then there is the representation of clergy and religious
people in films. With monotonous regularity they are
depicted as hypocritical weirdos. There was even one
such vicar on “Heartbeat” the other day. He was such a
neurotic twit I wouldn’t even have let him loose on
dusting the pews, let alone taking a service. But
history teaches that this propaganda has a serious
effect on public opinion. So often people groups have
been publicly ridiculed at length as a first stage
towards more serious opposition.
Another aspect of this propaganda was the silly Times
headline about more people (3.5 million) shopping on
line at Christmas than attended C of E Christmas
services (2.7 million). But how did they get the latter
figure? They didn’t ask me and, like many churches, we
had hundreds of extra people. Also why limit the
comparison to the C of E? What about the other
churches?
Be warned. If Christianity is “removed” the spiritual
vacuum will be filled by something else. In Russia it
was militant communism. In this country it can be deeply
dissatisfying materialism.
Chief Rabbi, Jonathan Sacks, said: “Today Britain is
home to many faiths, but I hope it doesn’t lose its own
– the Christian Faith that inspired its greatest poetry,
its finest architecture, and its bravest battles in
defence of freedom.” Quite! The Christian Faith is
also the means of the most satisfying life possible and
of eternal salvation.
Tony Higton |
Do
We Believe in 3 Gods?
