At Christmas for example, our head of state told us in her speech that the teachings of Christ had informed every thing that she had ever done as queen and head of the commonwealth and in her daily life. Not unreasonable given that she has her own religion!
And our estimable prime minister has told us, over and over again, that we are a Christian country, with Christian values. (He is perhaps unaware of IDS and the DWP.)
Now, as most of you know, I am not a religious person. I have no "faith": not in a god, not in a hereafter.
But I do respect those who believe that, for whatever reason, I am wrong.
Nor do I care what religion a person follows. As I have none, they are all at least as reasonable, or unreasonable, as each other to my mind.
So, I have friends whom I know are Christians (of various denominations), a couple of mates who are Jews, one who is Hindu, some Muslims. And, like many people I have friends whose religious leanings I know nothing about. Their faith is their business. It is almost never mentioned. It's a personal thing, as it should be.
I am then proud to support a food bank started by the minister's son, and still based in a Christian church (now run by Trussel Trust)...and every time I get my hair cut by my Muslim pal who is a barber, I give what would have been the tip, to the local mosque collection tin situated close to the till.
Of course I know more about Christianity than I do about other religions, because I went to a school which was obliged by law to provide Christian religious education, and I even ended up with a Standard Grade type qualification in RE.
And from all I learned from 12+ years of Christian assemblies (a hymn, a homily and a prayer), and what was, I suppose, Bible Study lessons, I cannot but wonder if our leaders have it quite right.
This head of state and head of government, who are committed Christians, seem to me to put their names to policies that Christ's teachings would abhor. They behave like they hadn't ever heard of the Bible, much less opened it, read it and learned from it.
I may be wrong, because my understanding is faulty, but I wonder how they can call themselves Christian and supposedly follow Christ's word at the same time as they ensure that Britain has the fourth largest military spend in the world... At the same time there are skinny little bags of bones kids, who bring tears to the eyes of decent people everywhere, and of any religion and none, eating scraps off the floor and out of bins when they can, and starving to death when they can't.
Something wrong and rotten, your majesty and prime minister.
You don't do any of this in my name.
You can feel assured Tris that I feel the same as you and I am Christian. Christianity is abused by all sorts of people, especially the rich and powerful.
ReplyDeleteThanks Bill. I seems to me like they are using it as some sort of "respectable" cloak. For votes in the case of Cameron, and for Elizabeth, because she is, bizarrely, the head of a branch of the Christian religion.
DeleteThere's nothing genuine in it. I can't help feeling that non religious me lives a more Christian life than they do.
Deliberately lying seems to be at the forefront of Christianity in the UK from what I have learnt in well over half a century. Is that the real meaning of democracy, lie as much as as you can and you will be rewarded on earth as well as in that other place?
ReplyDeleteI don't know. Maybe it is. Or maybe it's just what humans will do with whatever they are given... use it to their advantage.
DeleteSelf, self, self...
I'm not religious either, people can believe in which ever religion they like, I don't really understand it. Why believe in an invisible, non tangible entity, that is all seeing and knowing but, does bugger all to prevent pain and suffering; using the excuse of free will. No one uses free will to be, born poor, starve or be bombed by a far off assailant.
ReplyDeleteAs for the ruling classes, if they were truly believers; they would not go to war or permit suffering. Though there is a fair bit of war and suffering in the bible.
DeleteThe picture paints a powerfully depressing image, of how shitty the human race can be.
Roughly I suppose, that's how I feel... but spirituality and belief is a very personal thing.
DeletePeople believe in a multitude of things that they can't see and can't prove, sometimes superstitions... I suspect that last Friday there were people who really did double check everything...
Up to people to believe or not as they feel.
What I object to is people saying that they are of whatever belief... and not living it at all.
Yes, there is a lot of war and violence in the Bible. But the teachings of Christ are of peace, understanding, decency to people regardless of their race and disability, and lending a hand to the downtrodden.
Elizabeth and David clearly only ever read the hateful bits about smiting thine enemies! Must have been off when they did the nice bit.
Given all of that, is anyone surprised at the silence of the Church leaders in the debate?
ReplyDeleteYes. Desmond Tutu once indicated that he was tearing his hair out at the Church of which he was an archbishop. A conference of bishops meeting in somewhere in Africa, with war, poverty, famine and pestilence around them, was busy discussing whether or not women should be allowed to be archbishops, and whether priests should be allowed to be gay.
DeleteYou do get occasional comments from Welby or one of his bishops about the poverty in the UK, but I have to agree that they would be more convincing Christians if they were daily tearing strips off the government and the ghastly DWP in particular.
I read of that little spoilt brat in South Korea getting a year in jail after having a hissy fit over a bag of peanuts, I sincerely hope she gets a reality check having to get her own nuts an all for the next year,
ReplyDeletethen we look at those people who bow their heads for a minute in remembrance of all the people THEY sent to their deaths, they in my opinion should bow their heads in silence permenantly!
I wonder if that would have happened in the UK, John. I suspect that she will find this a hard year.
DeleteAnd I completely agree.
The next time we go to war let's have the prime minister of the day leading the troops, not from an office somewhere in Whitehall, but on the ground.
And if he is too old, then lets have his wife or kids there, in the danger zone.. That would probably stop a lot of wars.
From Burns "Holy Willie's Prayer" to Karl Marx's "Religion is the opium of the masses", there's plenty of proof that "you can't fool all of the people all of the time".
ReplyDeleteWell, Alex, as I say, I respect people's rights to believe that whichever god they worship is a divine personage.
DeleteBut I wish that people fighting over the superiority of their god, or their version of their god, would cause less strife and do a lot more good. I wish too that it were not rammed down your throat at school, but left for people to make up their minds about it.
I also, as I said, wish that politicians and leaders wouldn't hide behind the cloak of respectability of being a memeber of the established church.
I didn't watch the Queen's speech, but I didn't hear on the news that she actually got to grips with the poverty sweeping our countries, at the same time as her own income increased substantially. not a single mention of the fact that she was worried about a million people eating out of foodbanks because of her government's policies. You'd think that a philosophy based on the teachings of Christ might have left a moment's space for that kind of thought.
According to her majesty's church, a couple cannot marry whilst an ex spouse of one of them is still living. So, why did HM attend a blessing of her son's wedding to Mrs Parker Bowles (be no less a person than the Archbishop of her church), while Mr Parker Bowles yet draws breath?
Its a massive double standard on the part of politicians about which we probably shouldn't be surprised.
ReplyDeleteI suppose the question is, how long are we collectively going to put up with it? In Greece and with Nicola Sturgeon's recent speech in London - a microcosm of this (austerity) is being challenged.
Why are we all content to let governments come to the aid of an abstract idea from which the already well healed (who also happen to have the ear of governments) benefit greatly from at the expense of People - I capitalised that word deliberately because surely, at the end of the day, actual people are more important than incorporeal figures on a spreadsheet.
Same thing goes with your blog post above - in a sense we're all to blame because we tolerate the duality and on some level (in our wee heads), we do so because we're all moderately comfy.
I suppose a slight saving grace is, we tried last year to change things and will do so again in May. Currently having a bit of a ding dong on twitter with some people who appear to think everything is fine or that it can be fixed within the confines of the current arrangements.
Which I hope you'll agree is so much arse gravy.
Possibly we have been suckered to believe collectively that there is no real alternative to austerity, being told by both the political parties from the right, and the supposed left.
DeleteMaybe Nicola and the new Greek government will give us the impetus to do something about this, because sure as eggs is eggs it isn;t the right way to solve the problem for anyone except those at the top.
We should of course have looked to Iceland to show us the way, but with typical British arrogance we suppose that a tiny country in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean is well beneath giving the great British Empire any advice on how to deal with it's problems.
As for twitter arguments, I bet you are giving them hell. People who think that either Cameron or Miliband can sort the issues that affect everyday people in the UK are either terminally dim or part of the establishment.
That picture has got to be one of the most heartbreaking pics around. I cannot bear to look at more than a few seconds. The only proof one needs to show everything that could have been went so horribly wrong.
ReplyDeleteAbsolutely agree. It breaks my heart to think what that kid is going through, when I have so much.
DeleteAs I said, if it doesn't bring tears to your eyes, then there's something missing.
Maybe its the kid of picture that we should hang in Buckingham Palace and Downing street, where our "leaders" would be forced to look at it every day.
Tris
ReplyDeleteFor me they are just liars of the highest order because their actions speak louder than their words. I have a faith and I am far from perfect, but I have enough about me that I would not be punishing the poor for the wrongs of the wealthy, I would not have the unfair systems that see the wealthy avoid tax while the poor get hounded for tax credits, when more often than not the mistake was the governments in the first place. I have experienced that to the point that I gave up even claiming for something that I was entitled to.
They do it because they hope it will get them votes, they are hypocrites, the Windsor's being right up there as well, they do it because it's in the job description. They abuse a faith, like IS, like some Jews, they are all in it for themselves and if they really had a faith that they actually believed the world would be a little bit of a better place. The simple fact is they serve themselves and their own, they don't care about the majority, they use people to their own ends. People have to realise that it is time for change or it will reach a breaking point and everything falls, I am serious no matter how ridiculous that sounds. I do believe that you can only push people so far and they will push back. In this country it tends to take a lot for people to fight back, but the cracks are appearing, if democracy does not sort itself out then we will see a lot worse coming down the line, and their continued hypocrisy of faith just reinforces what people see every day now. I don't think they get it, every HSBC digs the hole a little deeper. The NO side lost the referendum but won't accept it, they might start to in May if people start to stick up for themselves and actually vote for they want and not what they are told. My wee soap box and I didn't claim anything on my wife's expenses.
Bruce
Yes, they are hypocrites, Bruce.
DeleteI think that you could be right. You can only push people so far.
We were pushed into wars that we really didn't want to fight; we have weapons that we don;t want; while people queue at food banks, we spend more that nearly every other state on Earth on killing people. Our MPs and Lords were fiddling their expenses; the banks ran riot with our money and then were bailed out with our money while the rest of us got worse and worse off, the press were hacking people's phones and bribing the police; the BBC was full of paedophiles and necrophiliacs, and god only knows what MPs Lords, top military, judges, top military and pop stars/djs were doing with anyone who they came into contact with.
And it seems that a lot of them took time off from fiddling and fumbling to swindle us out of masses of tax money, including the arch Brit, Thatcher.
As you've said before Bruce, this is a disgusting country run by a bunch of the worst kind of crooks. People must be waking up to it.
I am exactly like you I do not give a toss for religion, I had the nerve to tell a workmate and ex priest in the Anglican Church that I had zero interest in Religion but I would defend anyone's right to believe whatever rubbish they liked.
ReplyDeleteThat said ex priest lost his living because he had the nerve to remarry when his wife left him for another woman. Saint Paul said it was better to marry than to burn but then we are talking about Her Grace's Church. Charlie was fine though.
I have never understood why Ministers are in the Army, after all it is a sin to kill, isn't it. It certainly was when I too was educated in the Bible and the workings of the Church of Scotland. I also have school prizes for Religious Education, well I have a good memory for tripe. It was also useful to know my enemy.
Wouldn't it have been good had the Churches, Mosques and Synagogues got together and said enough is enough, they all worship the same God so they say. They are all Abrahamic Religions with the same root. How are they at this pretty pass bombing each other. As for Politicians, two faced is being kind to them and what are you trying to do, destroy the only industry that these people make money out of.
It's murder if I kill someone, unless the likes of Blair or Cameron has told me to do it.
DeleteLowlife like that can actually legalise murdering other totally innocent people.
Really the more you think about them, the more you feel utterly sickened by the lot of them.
If you notice, if you steal a few pounds then it is prison for you, if you steal billions then you probably get a knighthood. If you kill one person gaol again, but if you kill millions you get a top job and loads of money.
ReplyDeleteI agree totally not in my name.
Would someone tell those folk who sort out the films for television and remind them that the auld ones were not born when the war films they are putting on were made and we do not want to see any of them again either.
As a non tv watcher, Helena, I'm happy to say I never see any of them.
DeleteI've always hated war films. They are almost invariably a load of made up rubbish, and glorify killing.
Not that I mind a good murder, as long as Hercule Poirot or Miss Marple, Lewis and Hathaway or Barnaby and Jones are on the case!!
tris
ReplyDeleteCapitalism is to blame and not religion thats just a cop out
Christianity does give people a choice and its up to them.
They may claim the choice they make is the right one but
if you have eyes to see you will know if they chose rightly.
And when the time come to ascend to our heavenly father
unfortunately for them they will find no welcome in the house of
our Lord.
Still they are more interested in a personal heaven on earth as
opposed to a celestial one after life's end.
My Father said all wars are to keep the rich man in his castle
he was right then and still is now.
Niko:
DeleteI'm not blaming Christianity ... or indeed Islam or Judaism for anything.
I'm blaming the hypocrites who swear they are deeply religious and yet who oversee starvation, war, pestilence and misery whilst living in palaces and eating the best food in the world.
Windsor never once mentioned anything about poverty in her speech at Christmas. Maybe she doesn't know that her people are queuing up at food banks...who knows?
Maybe, come to that, Cameron hasn't been told. But I find it dubious. He might not be bright, but he can't have missed the food banks.
Surely they don't think that everyone lives like them.
As I understand real Christianity, its followers love and care for people less fortunate and able than themselves. I see little evidence of that from Windsor or Cameron.
And I saw little of it from Blair. Deeeeeeeply religious he is, lecturing on it at Ivy League Universities in America, yet he was partly responsible for the slaughter of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, because God spoke to his mate, the terminally moronic halfwit George W Bush, and told him to do it. Tony, of course,realised that while DubYa was around, God wouldn't speak to a mere Brit, but was happy to do George's bidding. Then when he stood down and it was no longer politically expedient to be CofE, he became a catholic and was immediately received at the Vatican by the ex-Pope like he was some sort of saint!
Has he read the bit in the bible about it being more difficult for an obscenely rich man to enter the kingdom of heaven than it is for a camel to pass through the eye of a needle? I guess he'll be stuffed when he snuffs it.
Maybe Windsor and Cameron would like to reflect on that too.
Never be cold again!
But you're right. Or rather your dad was.
DeleteAmerica's Vice President, the truly evil Darth Vader made a real fortune out of the Iraq war.
"My Father said all wars are to keep the rich man in his castle
Deletehe was right then and still is now."
Nico, your father is a wise man.