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: