Any old faith? 716

It is indisputable that Christianity was the dominant religion of the West for centuries. What is disputable, though not determinable, is whether Christianity did more good than harm, or even whether it did any good at all. Certain moral rules widely believed still to be right and fine and necessary were theoretically applied all over Christendom, and whether those rules derived from Christian teaching or ancient laws and customs, and those in turn from a commonsensical way of dealing with human nature and its needs, cannot be ascertained. Laws, customs, moral rules, religious teaching, self-interest are all threads inextricably woven together in the woof and warp of history. But it is possible to say that Europe’s greatness began with its slow emergence from the darkness of the Roman Catholic Church’s tyranny, then also from the tyranny of the Protestant churches, to emerge eventually into the  Age of Reason, the Enlightenment, and our continuing age of science.

Sure, religion played its part, perhaps usefully for human progress. If we perceive that some ways of living and surviving contributed to us by – say – Christianity (however they got there) are still useful, there is no reason why we shouldn’t go on trying to live by them.  No reason at all why not. But if, fumbling about clumsily trying to grasp some elusive ill-defined slippery Good that we just know is in there somewhere, and in desperation simply say,”Well let’s just keep hold of the bundle and we’ll have it safe!”, and so cling to the whole package –  the ritual, the taboos, the superstition, the myths, the terror – we would not be making sense.

Even worse if we say, “All those old Moral Religions have those nice rules in them, so let’s keep one or other of them going, it doesn’t matter much which.”

Yet it was along such lines, it seems, the heir to the throne of the United Kingdom, Prince Charles, has been thinking. On his 60th birthday – November 13, 2008 – he announced that when he was crowned king he would not swear to “defend the faith”, as the wording of the traditional coronation oath requires him to, but rather to “defend faith”.

Any old faith? Well, one of the “moral” faiths. The Prince has an obvious fondness for Islam.

Is Islam a “moral religion”? It does not teach the same moral rules as Christianity and Judaism. It has no “golden rule”. It commands enslavement, wife-beating, mass murder, torture, polygamy. It’s defenders say, “Well, so do the Christian and Jewish scriptures.”  To which priests and ministers and rabbis retort, “But we don’t actually do those things. Not any more.”

Still, there is no apparent resolve among churchmen or politicians to keep Britain a Christian country or to stop it becoming an Islamic country.

Pockets of discomfort can be found. A little protest may be heard  – at, for instance, some Christian websites.

One such, Caldron Pool, reported a religious event that took place this month (September 10, 2019) at Westminster Abbey – the cathedral where the monarchs of England are traditionally crowned – and revealed that there is unease among Anglicans about what happened.

Here’s the report:

A Grand Mufti was approved to read from the Quran at Westminster Abbey last Tuesday during a memorial service for a British politician.

According to columnist Rev Dr Jules Gomes, the Grand Mufti of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Husein Kavazović, was invited to read a portion of the Quran from the cathedral lectern during a Service of Thanksgiving for the life of Paddy Ashdown, a diplomat who served as Leader of the Liberal Democrats from 1988 to 1999.

Rev Dr Gavin Ashenden, the former chaplain to the Queen, said the reading repudiates Jesus by validating Islam and asserting the legitimacy of Mohammad:

Reading the Koran in cathedrals is sometimes seen as a sign of civility, hospitality or inclusion. Instead, it validates Islam’s teaching that is predicated on the claim that the resurrection was a fraud and Jesus lied to his followers and the world.

When this happens, it is a sign that the hosts misunderstand the ambition of the Koran and the assertions of Mohammad. In this epistemological conflict between Jesus and Mohammad, the Gospels and the Koran, the core contradiction signified is that one source is authentic and the other is bogus.

By welcoming an uncritical reading of the Koran, Westminster Abbey asserts the legitimacy of Mohammad and in so doing repudiates Jesus. One has to wonder what their claim to be a Christian cathedral rests on at that point?

Rev Dr Ashenden was the Honorary Chaplain to Queen Elizabeth II from 2008 until his resignation in 2017 after objecting to a reading of the Quran in St Mary’s Episcopal Cathedral in Glasgow.

We shouldn’t be surprised, really. It was Peter Hitchens, who back in 2016 warned, those who drive Christianity out of society are preparing the way for Islam. …

[He] said: “When they drive Christianity out of Europe, as they’re rapidly succeeding in doing, they will not create an atheist paradise. They will leave a space for Islam.”

Hitchens went on to warn that material prosperity, military force and anti-terror laws are not a reliable or sufficient defence against Islamic take-over. With Christianity out of the picture, the spread of Islam will be near impossible to resist.

“Those people who now campaign for Christianity to be driven, more or less, out of public life, out of education, and out of government, to become a purely private thing may be very unpleasantly surprised when, having succeeded doing that, they simply cleared a space for Islam to take over,” Hitchens said.

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We don’t agree, of course. Our answer is “Neither.” But if enough persons of power and influence believe that having a country that is officially Christian will save it from Islam, what can they do about it? Imams mount the pulpit in Westminster Abbey, Prince Charles prepares to defend the Islamic faith, sharia courts proliferate throughout the land
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And Britain has not been a religious country for a very long time. Thousands of churches have been turned into wallpaper storerooms. Yes, Catholics still go to mass; couples of all denominations get married in churches; parents have their children baptized; the bereaved have doctrinal nonsense read at interments about being sure and certain of resurrection and eternal life; but a pious people the British are not.
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And in America …? True, more people here think (to us inexplicably) that the Trinity is more believable than Allah. But for how much longer?
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We say, keep prosperity going and the military strong, implement all anti-terrorism laws, and be ready to fight Islam to destruction. 

Posted under Britain, United Kingdom by Jillian Becker on Wednesday, September 18, 2019

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