Extremism has flourished as Britain lost its faith in a Christian Vision, says the Sunday Telegraph. Is this more racial stirring or is there some truth in it? Michael Nazir-Ali, Bishop of Rochester thinks it has. Britain is certainly the most multi-cultural that it has ever been. I think we should welcome that. We talk of the world getting smaller and that we now live in a global village, so let's all live together and get on. However, it seems to me that we don't necessarily want to live together. Other cultures tend to stick together and seem afraid of mixing with others. In a relatively small city such as Salisbury, there is a Bangladeshi community. I can understand people from Bangladesh (or any other country, for that matter) wanting to retain strong links with their culture and family origins, but their forefathers moved to Britain, surely because they liked the idea of living in this country. I am fortunate that my circle of friends includes Australians, Americans, Bangladeshis, Indians, Sri Lankians, French, Germans as well as British people. I know Muslims, aetheists, agnostics, Christians as well. We all get on well, so where is the problem?
I find it quite interesting that the religious membership in Britain now has more Roman Catholics than Anglicans. What would Henry VIII have to say about that? The third highest faith is Islam - 1.6 million RC; 1.5m CofE; .9m Muslim. Orthodox, Hindu, Pentecostal and Jewish make up another 1.1m between them. Not that long ago, if someone was asked their religion, you would expect to here different sects of the Christian faith - C of E, Methodist, Baptist, Roman Catholic and so on. Not so today.
Muslims have submitted an application in Oxford to broadcast calls to prayer from a mosque. Residents have urged the council to refuse this request for a two minute call three times a day, warning that it would turn the area into a Muslim ghetto. Oh dear, our Christian hymn books have a hymn that runs:
In Christ there is no East or West,
in him no South or North,
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
How can anyone argue with that? I can hear bells from 3 Anglican churches from my house, would the sound of a call to prayer from a Mosque be that bad? I certainly don't consider that I live in a Christian ghetto. What rhetoric.
What is the answer? In fact, is there one? What does the future hold? I think that there are more questions than answers. All I do want to see though, is peace and harmony - irrespective of culture, creed or faith.
Amen to that.
I find it quite interesting that the religious membership in Britain now has more Roman Catholics than Anglicans. What would Henry VIII have to say about that? The third highest faith is Islam - 1.6 million RC; 1.5m CofE; .9m Muslim. Orthodox, Hindu, Pentecostal and Jewish make up another 1.1m between them. Not that long ago, if someone was asked their religion, you would expect to here different sects of the Christian faith - C of E, Methodist, Baptist, Roman Catholic and so on. Not so today.
Muslims have submitted an application in Oxford to broadcast calls to prayer from a mosque. Residents have urged the council to refuse this request for a two minute call three times a day, warning that it would turn the area into a Muslim ghetto. Oh dear, our Christian hymn books have a hymn that runs:
In Christ there is no East or West,
in him no South or North,
but one great fellowship of love
throughout the whole wide earth.
How can anyone argue with that? I can hear bells from 3 Anglican churches from my house, would the sound of a call to prayer from a Mosque be that bad? I certainly don't consider that I live in a Christian ghetto. What rhetoric.
What is the answer? In fact, is there one? What does the future hold? I think that there are more questions than answers. All I do want to see though, is peace and harmony - irrespective of culture, creed or faith.
Amen to that.
4 comments:
Oooh, a religious debate! *rubs hands*
No, seriously, I was just going to say that compared to the three Anglican churches outside your bedroom window, you should just see how many churches they have around here! This is of course the Deep South of the U.S., known as the Bible Belt, and there are more churches on street corners here than there are Spar shops in England (and that's saying something). I don't know or care about the domination -- sorry, denomination -- they're all the same to me, since I'm an athieognostic and don't have much patience for any of them.
It's not religion I'm against, it's just a very noisy minority of outspoken religious people (of ANY and all faiths) that get on my wick. So many things annoy me, sometimes serious matters and sometimes silly matters -- take, for instance, the recent slamming of the new movie, The Golden Compass. Horrified religious people were quick to slate it, saying, "It corrupts the minds of the young with its anti-religious ideas."
Yes, but meanwhile I could argue that those same religious people are busy "corrupting" the minds of the young with their own versions of life, the universe and everything. But they're too wrapped up in themselves to understand that.
I feel I could go on and on about this, but really what it boils down to is this: If there's a sure-fire way to turn me from an agnostic into an atheist, it's being around outspoken religious people. It's not religion itself, or the concept of a God, but religious people who refuse to shut up and leave me the hell alone!! I have a mind, and I'm reasonably intelligent -- as far as I'm concerned I'm not "misguided" in any way, thankyouverymuch.
Just the other day two chaps arrived at my door to "talk sense into me" (thinly veiled as a promise to "deliver a message from the Lord"). I asked for their home addresses so I could go round their house some day and try to teach them what they believe is all wrong in a condescending tone. Somehow I don't think they'd appreciate that much... But you see, I wouldn't ever dream, in a million years, of going round unannounced to some stranger's house to discuss religious beliefs. The mind boggles at the audacity of these people! Who do they think they ---
*counts to ten*
Sorry, I'll stop now. :-)
Words of wisdom, Keith. To me, organised religion has lost its appeal. I cannot really believe in nothing, I can't see how we could have just happened, but I can't stand the piety and religious dogma that certain sects put out. I also like to be responsible for my own beliefs, creeds and actions. I don't need someone in a dog-collar telling me how I should behave! As for door-canvassers, I recently told a couple of Jehovah's Witnesses that I didn't subscribe to their policy of manslaughter by refusing blood transfusions. One of them (why are there always two?) told me you didn't need a blood transfusion, sodium chloride could now be used instead. I told him if he was as ignorant of the Bible as he obviously was on medicine, we had better part company!
Quite right too!!
And now... you're tagged! :-D
http://www.enidblyton.net/secretblog/blog-tagging-and-the-three-investigators.html
Tag, you're it! :D
Post a Comment