In the last of the present series about the future of Christianity Cheri Blair, wife of former British longest serving Prime Minister and a practicing Barrister, asked the question, why is the Christian Church failing in Europe but thriving in the USA? Only 14% of the population in the USA claim to have no belief in any form of God whereas the percentage is 44% in the UK and 69% in Sweden.
In the programme Cheri did not address the question of the existence of God, or the historical validity of the Bible and the evidence for reported life of Jesus of Nazareth. She started from the basic assumptions of faith, of people with faith attending church. She asked questions of Anglican and Catholics Leaders in the UK and then went on a visit to the USA, speaking to such individuals as the Rev Jesse Jackson and the wife of President Bush.
Three things emerged from the programme. The first was not about Christianity but about Cheri Blair. The programme confirmed my hunch that she is planning a political career, on similar lines to that of Hilary Clinton, or perhaps she is even more ambitious with being Britain’s first elected President when after the death of the Queen Elizabeth, the country decides on radical reform with an elected head of State the abolition of the House as a chamber with titles and disestablishment of the Church of England.
The second is that instead of being a traditional Catholic she is at the forefront of arguing for women to have equality in the church and indirectly she questioned the continuation of the Church of England and even more indirectly the Monarch after Queen Elizabeth. It was evident from what was said that the Catholic Church with the present Pope is retreating even more into the establishing the purity of the faith and against modernism. An old friend from her youth in Liverpool who became a priest comments that the Catholic church has always been against change and that even to day if he took his ministry to prostitutes and gays he would expect to come under fire from within the church in contrast to the reported approach of Jesus of Nazareth. One British Church Leader could offer no explanation why the attendance and active participation was significantly falling.
Cheri suggested that one explanation has been the involvement of Europe in too major World Wars, with the occupations, the impact of the bombing of the civilian population, something with was not experienced in the USA and even in Civil war citizens woman and children, the elderly and sick were not directly affected in general. One has only see to the reaction to 9/11 to appreciate the difference between the experience of the two countries such as the decision not to take action to prevent the destruction of Coventry for example, despite having advance intelligence, because to do so would have revealed the extent to which we had penetrated their communications code. Several thousand were killed and injured un addition to the destruction of the city centre. Such actions, including the holocaust would test faith although there is little evidence in fact that it did, quite the contrary in fact as the churches thrived. Cheri argued that the change in the UK occurred with the freedom of the sixties which were significant greater than girls wearing short skirts and the impact of the contraception pill. For me issues such as the development of weapons mass destruction condoned by the Christian religions, the condoning of racial persecution and intolerance, the acceptance of Western wealth and third world poverty and sickness were also factors which challenged the authority of the older generation of the old order in the UK who I felt then and still do had become hypocrites unchristian.
In the United States various factors have created a different situation with perhaps the most important being the separation of the state from religious beliefs. This meant that traditional faiths could flourish with the establishment of Catholicism as a major force with the waves of immigrants from Italy, Ireland, Poland, Central and South America. Similarly there have been influxes of people of the Jewish faith in the early part of the 20th century and then again before the Second World War commenced and afterwards. Given that many of the early settlers went to the USA in order to achieve religious freedom it is not surprising that Protestants now accounts for over 50% of the population, that there are hundreds of different faiths and that many of the major new faiths originated the USA with each having several million of followers.
There has also been a strong movement, or movements is more appropriate to bring those with different doctrinal and practice preferences together
The consequence of this has been the growth over the past two decades of the mega church community, Cheri Blair visit one which was original established by a small group of young people who were dissatisfied with the religions of their childhood. To day they have created no one but several mega church buildings which from the outside look more like shipping malls or cinema multiplexes arena auditoriums with sating for 20000, cinema seats, large screens and full amplified audio visual presentations but proclaiming the basic and original Christian messages. The establishments provide places for a comprehensive range of activities and for a major involvement in all forms of charitable works. The positive aspects are the sense of equality and opposition to racial and other prejudices and the impression that participation is for as much or as little as individuals want, but the approach is to provide a total approach for life rather than just as religious fix once a week, not different to go to a football match or rock concert, opera and other forms of entertainment sport and group experience, However the feeling that this could be a weekly injection of religion which enabled people to go on with their life as before remained.
The cultures of post World Wars I and II Britain were very different from that in the USA in the same period, but the enlargement of the European Community and globalization does provide the opportunity for new approaches to become established. However I am not convinced that the older established churches, particularly the Catholic Church and the Churches of England and Scotland are able to adapt themselves, or that there is the momentum for the same kind of developments in the UK as in the USA. It would be necessary for the Monarchy and the Aristocracy to removed from government and the disestablishment of the Church of England.
I was awake in time for the Anew Marr Show where Greg Dyke was Greg Dyke and the discussion ranged from Bankers, MI5 and Torture, Margaret Thatcher and Jane Goody. There was a good and balanced piece on the death of Ivan Cameron and the approach to disabled children and support for their parents. I also enjoyed a piece of Radio Caroline and the disbelief some young people have that there was no popular music on the BBC radio and we had to listen to Radio Luxembourg.
I watched part of the League Cup where Manchester United were not on form having rested a number of key players and Spurs had opportunities to win during normal time and then in the period of extra time, but were hopeless with the penalties kicks failing twice in the first three which Man United took successfully. Prior to this I watched Newcastle lose at Bolton 1.0 enjoying a lunch of roast pork joint and roast potatoes. Followed by grapes. Later I had a gammon salad
During the morning I had felt in the mood for Bach first with the Organ and the well known Toccata and Fugue which is the headline piece on of the first classical Long Play record in my small library, followed by a record of Cantatas, his Violin Concerto and then a two album of the Brandenburg’s. I listened to some Cantatas, a harpsichord concerto and some of the Brandenburg. I am listening to the cello suites 1-4 while writing.
Immediately after the Cheri Blair Programme I was transport to the late Victorian Countryside with Lark Rise to Candleford where the eldest sister of the dress store who was the at the cusp of polite good behaviour and scandal avoidance and the local policeman an authority figure in the community have a brief clandestine affairs during the period each year when the husband devoted himself to garden in preparation of the autumn show and his wife had taken to her bed in a form of protest at her dis-satisfaction with the state of their relationship. Mention of the dress shop reminded of an early episode when a piece of coloured ribbon was bought to brighten the life of the wife of the stonemason who was also feeling under the long marital weather and mothering. As a child I was also fascinated by pieces of coloured ribbon bought to adorn dresses made to pattern by my birth mother who became most skilled although it was an elder sister whop had stayed at home in Gibraltar to make the clothes for the family of seven sisters and four brothers. She used a pedal movement machine just after the war and then bought a small table top model which I learnt to use although only on sewing small patches of cut offs together.
The relationship is ended with the help of the younger sister and other good neighbours and other situations in the episode are nicely resolved to leave the audience with good feelings, including me.
Having complied that Lost had lost some of its integration and cohesiveness with the first episodes, last night was excellent with the back story on Locke’s suicide which was in fact a murder by guess who (Ben), and we find that Locke’s body along with the although Jack and Hurley, Kate, Sayid, Sun Hwa and Ben. The plane is hit by the white light turbulence that is moving the island in place and time and only Jack and Hurley and Kate find themselves back on the Island. In this episode the rest/some of the passengers have crashed on the island and one of them meets up with a female who has been under the custody of Sayid on the plane and mentions that she has found Locke who did cores not member being among the passengers. He says the last thing he remembers is dying. He then flashes back to when we last had knowledge of him after returning as part of the Oceanic six survivors, in Tunisia where he is contact by Charles Widmore who explains that he was on the Island but ejected by Ben and that the six need to return in order to prevent catastrophe with Ben at the heart of the trouble and offers to help him find and persuade the others to return together, giving him a false identity and a helper. Locke meets resistance from everyone contacted and then his helper is killed, (he learns by Ben subsequently) who comes to hospital where he has been taken after the shooting and subsequent car accident and where he is the process of committing suicide. Ben stops this, is given information by Locke where upon Ben strangles Locke and fakes his death as the suicide he was originally attempting. Back on the Island after the crash Locke goes to see some injured survivors and this includes Ben. One of the other passengers asks, do you know and him and Lock utters what will become of the great lines of TV drama. Yes. He killed me!.
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