“Render unto Caesar the things that are Caesar’s,
And unto God the things that are God’s.”
Matthew 22:21.
Christianity is now a minority religion. It’s official. It’s on the way out with, according to the latest census, 5.5million fewer people professing themselves to be Christian since the last time we looked. Leicester and Birmingham now have more believers from other faiths than practising Christians, and half the population of South Wales do not follow any religion, which is a bit of a blow for the land of Celtic saints and wayside chapels.
In Sussex, Hastings in the east and Brighton to the west are towns which have the lowest levels of faith in any transcendent being, Christian or otherwise. However, take heart, co-believers, Shamanism is on the up, showing the largest increase in those describing it as their religion (8,000 from 650 in 2011).
Calls to disestablish the Church of England
These statistics have called forth the usual and, on the face of it, entirely justified demands to disestablish the Church of England (CofE), to abolish its place in the constitution and call for it to admit that it can hardly be described as a national church. This is a really tricky subject and, as I understand it, easier said than done. There are good arguments on both sides and would need more than the space of one article to cover.
Separating church and state would mean ending the monarch’s role as ‘supreme governor’ of the CofE, abolition of bishops in the House of Lords and removal of the requirement to hold religious assemblies in state schools.
However, the demands following the census go further than mere disestablishment of one particular denomination. The calls are for religious broadcasting, thoughts for the day, Christian schools and any overt Christian involvement in the nation’s life to be abandoned. Why? What about the 44.4 percent of those of us who do believe? We’re hardly niche: in fact what many would call a significant minority. So come on everybody, it’s Christmas – be nice!
Criticisms of Christianity
Yes, there’s been a lot of bad press, calling out awful financial and sexual scandals, corrupt priests, unfair privileges and all sorts of attitudes and behaviour, including links to the slave trade, that do not reflect the life and teaching of Jesus Christ. Looking further back, the wealth and power the church accrued was nothing short of immoral and to make matters worse, it was not used for the benefit of humanity but for worldly authority and political influence.
Today Christianity is often known for its obsession with sex and gender and its eagerness to suppress divergence or difference or anything that is not mainstream. For these heresies, we who profess to be Christian should beg forgiveness from those we have hurt but also from a God, who we believe, loves everyone unconditionally.
The church isn’t always wrong
But it’s Christmas – season of good will – and I’m putting off the hair shirt for the time being, in order to redress the balance a bit. The urgent command to ‘love one another’ matters more than ever this Christmas with its attendant anxieties. Together with other community groups from all faiths and none, the church in many of its forms, including the Church of England, has risen to the challenge, with congregations helping with warm rooms, hot meals, debt counselling, homework clubs, and practical help for refugees.
It is no longer so easy to fling the old insult that the CofE is the Tory Party at prayer, as for at least a generation it has been prepared to criticise the government. In fact, for most of the Thatcher years, it was the loyal opposition. Archbishop Runcie got up her nose regularly with his Faith in the City commission and his insistence on praying for the Argentinians after the Falklands war, condemning the nationalism of the time as close to idolatry. Justin Welby, the present Archbishop of Canterbury, has been trenchant in his disapproval of the Tories’ proposed strategies with regard to refugees.
Christian heritage
This doesn’t mean that I approve of Bishops in the Lords or any special privileges. Humble the church by all means – it would probably do it good – but don’t deny the Judaeo/Christian heritage that has led to much of what we value. It can be argued that our social services, the NHS, schools, our judicial system, human rights and democracy itself find their roots in our Christian past.
The English language came of age with reformers like William Tyndale, who published the Bible in English, a book that gave birth to so many of the expressions we use to this day. And what about art? The National Gallery hosts Christmas all the year round in the Sainsbury Wing (sadly and wrongly shut at present), with rooms full of ethereal virgins and buxom babies. And music – two thousand years of sublime chords from plainsong to Bernstein’s Mass. Christmas, without Handel’s Messiah, cannot be contemplated.
Room for all religions
This leads me to my next point. Leave religious broadcasting alone. For one thing, it’s not just Christianity on Thought for the Day. There is wisdom from Buddhists, Jews, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, all of whom have a view. Religious programmes usually aim to inform and educate, surely extremely important in our plural but often divided society? So, let us hear and see the best that faith has to offer. Let us kick off Christmas, as we always have, with the exquisite voice of the chorister singing the first verse of ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ from King’s College.
Finally, there may be good arguments for the state to take over Church schools, but surely it is vitally important in a diverse society for religion still to be taught, for everyone’s great stories to be heard? October hosted Divali this year, Hanukkah began last week and soon it’s Christmas. There is room in a democracy for all traditions, and it would be truly sad if there were no more Reception class nativities performed in front of adoring relatives, no angels with stage fright, no diminutive Marys or wise men going awol.
So to quote Tyndale, where you heard it first: “Let us eat, drink and be merry”, for things can surely not get any worse.
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