Posted on 11/22/2004 8:47:11 AM PST by dead
Christian belief has become something to hide in 'free' Britain.
‘THE instincts of the masses are Christian,’ declared Cardinal Manning in 1868, presumably with some satisfaction. Nobody, perhaps not even the Prince of Wales, who famously wishes to be Defender of Faith rather than Defender of THE Faith, would say the same today, although, in terms of being bothered about peace and justice, helping the poor (witness Children in Need) and wearing yellow bands to denote concern about suffering (witness Prince William et al) it is probably true. What is different, however, is that today most people prefer not to associate their better feelings with God. They stress their humanity, not their spirituality, unless it is cultish spirituality like Kabala, Alpha or something New Ageish.
This is why so many British people, even the minority who supported Bush’s campaign for re-election, now view America with suspicion rather than affection and why the question of how far religion should influence politics is once again hotly debated. Is the US on the way to becoming a theocracy? people ask, with genuine concern. Are the Americans about to cry their equivalent of "une foi, une loi, un roi" (one faith, one law, one king), a cry that was eventually drowned out only by the screams of those massacred in the European religious wars of the 16th century? Coming on top of the revelation by EU Commissioner Rocco Buttiglione that, as a Catholic, he unapologetically held Catholic views (good Lord!), together with the terrifying declarations and statements of those Islamic fanatics who use God and religion as weapons of terror, religion is now thought of as being rather like leprosy, a horrible disease from which those afflicted should be rescued and cured.
Yet it is strange. Godless liberalism, the new opium of the masses, can be just as destructive as god-fearing religion, and - excuse the pun - has none of religion’s saving graces. Yet it escapes any censure. I would go further. Liberalism, in the way we currently mean it, ie not Gladstonian liberalism which was a political creed dedicated to limiting taxation, promoting trade and industry, reducing public expenditure and getting rid of restrictive laws, but social liberalism, ie all judgments are relative and nothing can be labelled right or wrong unless that is what liberals decree, while it has made society less rigid, on balance a good thing, has also brought about a whole host of disasters: family breakdown, sexual disease among the young, teenage pregnancy, the collapse of self-respect and dignity, yob culture and, above all, a new kind of sanctimonious intolerance among politicians for anybody expressing views, particularly religious views, that actually draw clear lines.
To be a social liberal used to denote a kind of cheerful free-and-easiness. That has vanished. Nowadays, social liberalism means cheerless totalitarianism. Ban, ban, ban, the liberals cry, as they noisily air personal dislikes and turn them into law, making pariahs out of smokers, hunters, those who shake the salt cellar too hard, and soon those who shoot and anybody else who doesn’t conform to the rigid liberal agenda as well. It seems that Britain avoided religious confessional politics only to allow liberal confessional politics in by the back door.
I suppose it is the word "liberal" that has blinded us. "Liberal" sounds so, well, liberal. It is a word redolent of freedom and breathing space; a good word. Its hijacking by MPs, MEPs and MSPs as a weapon of mass social destruction is depressing, although it has a certain amusing irony that it was the leader of the liberal group, Graham Watson, who was one of the most vociferous in declaring Mr Buttiglione unacceptable as justice commissioner, whereas "former" communists are greeted like long lost friends. European liberals, while taking enormous care not to be tainted by even a sniff of Islamophobia - a current taboo - are openly "Christophobic" - a useful word coined by French MEP Philippe de Villiers. The really worrying thing is that so many powerful people applaud.
In a way, religion has only itself to blame. Too many people have declared God to be on their side only to wreak havoc in His name. But most people of faith have developed more enlightened frames of mind and want to worship and let worship, live and let live. That some people still kill for their faith surely does not mean that those with gentler religious beliefs should be treated like Cain or deemed lesser citizens than those with no faith at all? Should the new religion of strident and bossy liberalism really be left to reign unquestioned?
Liberalism, like all human notions, is not, just by its definition, a force for good. Like over-zealous religions, it, too, needs to be challenged.
In America, the evangelical Protestants and those Catholics who rejected the flip-flop liberalism of John Kerry stood up and were counted. This does not indicate that America has suddenly gone any more religiously mad than it was before, but it does represent a long-overdue tug on the leash for the kind of bolshie and malevolent liberalism, the sort our appalling parliamentarians want to foist upon us, that has contributed to the sum of human unhappiness rather than happiness.
But, in retaliation, could the US election be replicated here, as some people are asking? I don’t think so. In Britain, vegans are respected more than Christians. Church-going is deemed pretty eccentric, and a declared belief in aliens is greeted with less sneering than a declared belief in God. OK, that’s a slight exaggeration, but only slight, and we all know that when Jeremy Paxman asked if Bush and Blair prayed together, he was looking for both a cheap laugh and yet more ammunition to fuel the "Blair is crackers" theory.
Some Christian movements in Britain are growing, certainly, but they are the Christian movements which believe solely in smiling and holding hands. There’s nothing wrong with smiling and holding hands, but it hardly amounts to the kind of religion capable of generating a religious takeover at the ballot box and introducing a new set of commandments.
As for Catholics, still objects of dismay and dislike in part of Britain, many years and much change have occurred since the 1920s when Pius XI advocated that they should work to reassert the "values of the faith over the values and structures of state and society". By the 1960s, Cardinal Heenan’s tone was quite different, with emphasis placed on Catholics identifying with Party and Country, rather than trying to create a kind of critical-mass Catholic bloc. This has appertained ever since, with campaigns like David Alton’s against abortion being seen as issue-driven rather than faith-driven and attracting supporters from all faiths and none.
It seems to me that just as religions once showed scant tolerance for liberalism, so the boot is now on the other foot, and although liberal intolerance may have a more civilised face, it is just as unacceptable. Liberals are often too busy seeing the plank in everybody else’s eye to see the one in their own, and their own record on saving mankind from itself is too illiberal to get away scot-free.
Those who find their instincts are Christian of whatever denomination should not feel constrained from saying as much, and those who hear them should welcome their contribution to the democratic process, instead of rejecting them and thus turning the whole concept of liberalism completely and unpleasantly on its head.
Interesting article. Makes some very good observation about what today's liberalism is.
Given Socialism's toll in human death and misery over the last 100 years which is far worse than anything any form of Christianity was responsible for even much earlier in civilization, the Leftists have few grounds on which to criticize Christianity, for, let's face it, that's the only religion these short sighted bigots actively oppose.
In a way, religion has only itself to blame. Too many people have declared God to be on their side only to wreak havoc in His name.
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This canard doesn't hold up in the modern world. Most of the slaughters of the 20th century were done by the Godless (Communist,Nazi...).
Very well said!
Good article.
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