Did you see the video of His Holiness the Pope slapping a woman in San Marco the other day? He just proved (and he later publicly admitted) that the Pope is fallible after all. It almost makes me proud to be an Anglican.
I heard someone say the other day that they love old churches for the reasons they should be loved - as places of contemplation, peace and spirituality - but did not go along with the whole worship of Jesus thing in the form of religion. That's how I look at them. I love working in churches if they are older than 200 years, and I have worked in quite a few. Britain is blessed with hundreds of 500-1000 year-old churches, thankfully no longer under the control of Rome.
At one end of the spectrum we have the High Church, Anglican Catholics, and at the other there are the dim-witted, sexually repressed, Happy-Clappy Christians who think that the way to attract young people into the faith is to have amplified Christian rock bands playing in church every Sunday. The BBC radio stations are employing similar tactics to attract the youth right now, and it is just as infuriating as modern Christianity. Why don't they wait for us old people to die before destroying it all?
This year, everyone except me went to the abbey for a concert of Christmas carols, involving a real donkey. They said it was wonderful and moving, and not one of them are Christian. I now regret not going.
The C of E (Contemplation of Eternity) would be better-off changing from a religion to a philosophy. Get rid of all the silly mumbo-jumbo, virgin births, and invisible goblins, and people would return to church to enjoy singing, ceremony, and the architecture. I certainly would.
ReplyDeleteNo, that wouldn't work. You need miracles to run it. You need mystery in amongst every day life. You need faith, or - if you prefer - suspension of disbelief. I am very good at suspending disbelief and my life is all the richer for it. It really depends on how you interpret 'God'.
DeleteI like the Anglican church because it's a broad church with many Faith's under one roof. When I visit England I love visiting old churches and cathedrals.
ReplyDeleteI don't think it houses any other faiths than Anglicans do. I like the small-town quality of Anglicanism. Vicars on bicycles, etc. The Queen is 'Defender of The Faith', not 'Faiths'.
DeleteI mean all the different kinds of Anglicans from Evangelicals to High church Anglicans. England An Elegy by Roger Scruton is an excellent book and he talks about this in his book. To think I read books by Tories? I like him though.
DeleteI am in two minds about Roger Scruton. He reminds me of a more intellectual version of some of the people around here, who justify their outspoken beliefs on all manner of right-wing controversies concerning immigrants, the working classes, fox-hunting etc. etc. by calling it mindless political correctness and ignoring the legitimate concerns which allowed the far-left to get the oxygen to even begin a public debate on them. I suppose what I am saying is that Roger Scruton boils down to what many people in society are - an influential cunt. All I can say is that I am glad that I had a more understanding lecturer teaching me the rudiments of philosophy than Scruton.
DeleteI doubt he has much influence on the cunts who listen to BBC Radio A Point of View whilst still half asleep. I thought he spoke wisely on Brexit and what it has done to this country from any point of view and if Dave is saying to think he reads books by Tories, he also reads blogs by Tories, and we still get along.
DeleteOf course.
DeleteCunts who listen to the BBC whilst half asleep? I've got it. You need to write a pamphlet entitled, 'BRITAIN AWAKE!' with a big flag of St George all over it. That would suit your ideology perfectly. I think you should move to Austria. Lots of like-minded people there.
DeleteI remember this from my Catechism. Is the Pope Infallible? Yes the Pope is infallible in God. I remember at school thinking the Pope was God when I was very young and the day the nuns got excited and made an announcement when the smoke turned white above the Vatican, which we had been waiting days for, and a successor to Pope John 23rd had been appointed. I liked Pope John but it all seemed to go downhill after him and then I had to see a nun everyday before school because I dared to query the teaching of the Catholic Church.
ReplyDeleteTo declare the Pope infallible is pretty much the same thing as declaring the Emperor of Japan a deity. It's one of the more obvious lies they come out with, but people seem willing to go along with it.
DeleteThe 'happy-clappy' set here view trump as Heaven-sent.
ReplyDeleteLike I say, they are fucking dim-wits.
DeleteDim wits who cling to him and their rising 401K's. Raping the globe to increase their 401K's.
DeletePlease forgive my butting. I'll go try my own comment now.
I remember showing my granddaghter the stated creed of a happy clappy church her bestie attended and she wanted to go, too. The creed said "women walk behind men". She didn't care; she wanted to go, too. I refused. I wonder now...
ReplyDeleteThat sounds more extreme than our lot of hippies.
DeleteCan't do with any of it.
ReplyDeleteDo you like the buildings though?
Deletei just sit in our little church
ReplyDeleteSit in silence
But I have a key
It's a shame they have to be locked now.
Delete