Is The Church Still Relevant?
In the ‘70s our church organist, a sweet, kindly and devout Anglican who’d been faultlessly abandoned by her husband, was flatly refused permission to remarry in church because she was divorced. The sense of injustice I felt as a Christian teenager at this callous prioritising of doctrine over decency is still palpable. Although I wasn’t aware of it then, this was the beginning of the end my own faith.
Too often the church has resounded with the voice of the naysayer, quixotically railing against modernity and the demise of repressive Victorian sexual prurience and hypocrisy. On swearing, nudity and sex on TV; the ‘blasphemy’ of Python, The Last Temptation and Springer The Opera; pre-marital sex and cohabitation, and on a thousand other petty prejudices it has railed and lost, and rightly lost.
The last 300 years have been pretty tough for Christianity, as science has challenged and ultimately collapsed centuries-old certainties. Perhaps it’s defensiveness, but it seems to me too many of the faithful have clung to bronze-age certitudes in matters of gender and sexual morality, as if mere rigidity could buttress them from secularity. It can’t. Rather, it becomes all too easy to caricature Christians as irrelevant cranks, obsessed by where one should put one’s genitalia: Loud, strident voices spewing pious bigotry, condemning love itself, if it shares the same gender; or promulgating banal misogyny, as if the want of a penis under purple robes could actually offend the Almighty!
Surely women bishops and gay marriages are coming soon, leaving all those shrill, judgemental Christian critics on the wrong side of history once more. But even as a committed humanist, I take no pleasure in this self-inflicted marginalisation. The church is at a crossroads. To offer progressive leadership, as it once did over civil-rights and the decriminalisation of homosexuality (yes, that’s really true), over apartheid and the dehumanising effects of 1980’s industrial decline; or to retreat to the security blanket of arcane dogma? But before it opts for the latter, a word of warning: Our sweet and kindly organist enjoyed a Register Office wedding, and never stepped foot in church again.
By: Steve Miller, The Christian Atheist
Author bio: The Christian Atheist is not only a committed non-believer, secularist and Chair of Cotswold Humanists; but also regularly attends a local High Anglican church and is interested in the Bible, theology and the history of Christianity. He believes that Christianity’s cultural legacy stills has value; more so if it is unencumbered by superstition and belief in the supernatural.
This short article was published in the Gloucestershire Echo on 31st December 2012 under the banner: The Great Debate – Is The Church Still Relevant?
Is The Church Still Relevant?,
I always remember the phrase “the Church is the only army that shoots its own wounded”!.
Very true – although it is not God that does this – it is Man, with all his rules and regulations…………………..
Utter rubbish. Going for the obvious stereotype every time. Science has not touched century old certainties for God/Dawkins sake. They are not speaking the same bloody language. How can one contradict the other when they are talking about entirely different things? And besides It’s only idiots like this that think that those certainties were there in the first place.
Steve, you obviously have no idea about the complexities involved in Christianity and probably other faiths. The bit I find frightening and quite frankly out of date is…
‘Surely women bishops and gay marriages are coming soon, leaving all those shrill, judgemental Christian critics on the wrong side of history once more’.
Coming soon eh? Do you still believe we are heading in a direction? Progressing are we? Moving forward? Onward Humanist Soldiers.
A year or so ago I saw a TV programme about the top 25 achievements made in the scientific world in the last 50 years. The achievements ranged from computer science to the discovery of DNA; and from advances in genetics to advances in medicine. It ocurred to me later, that the BBC would be hard put to do a programme on the top religious achievements in the last 50 years.82p3
Again James you are dreaming of life as a preparation for the future. There is no requirement to ‘achieve’ anything. We are not going anywhere. There is no forward motion. Progress is a myth. Material progress does happen but it answers nothing. It is just “new stuff”
‘…hard put to do a programme on the top religious achievements in the last 50 years’. Why are you so desperate to ‘achieve’ anything. We are already here. We, the human race have nothing to achieve or advance.
IT IS NOT ABOUT MOVING FORWARD
Bill, if your intemperate remarks are typical of “humanists”, then I might find myself reconsider my describing myself as a humanist.
I am an atheist, and dislike all religions based on superstition, but I do try to be tolerant of those who have differing views and aspirations.
Or is it a requirement of “humanism” to be dogmatic and dismissive of all who disagree with one’s own views ?
If so, say so now and I will cancel my membership.
The human race does appear to be making ‘progress’ – towards its own destruction! Only by everybody working together without prejudice will it be possible to ensure that humans do not become extinct. There are many reasons why we do not cooperate in this endeavour; religion is one of the most significant of these.
Peter, name me a religion based on superstition.
Chris. I think you will find science is helping out in the race to extinction.
Religion only results in a few squabbles here and there. It is blamed for lots of other troubles. Such as ‘religion causes wars’ etc etc. But does it really?
Nothing left to achieve? Reduction of suffering would be a good start. So much of the world lives in poverty, famine or war – for this state of affairs to continue is a terrible thing.
Steve, Tis just the way of things. Where do you get your utopian vision from?
So if we are not to progress, then what is the goal in life? Just to survive and live through our little miserable lives?
There should be no goal. Our society at present is designed to function for the concept of progress towards a future as a system to live under, so you therefore never have to face the everlasting present that is reality. Progress is just running away. Pushing your head in the progress pillow.
As for ‘miserable’ well that is a good word. ‘Pray for us miserable sinners’ as some would say. Miserable has alternative meanings. It doesn’t always mean sad or unhappy.
I enjoyed reading Steve Miller’s piece, but a bit confused by bill’s comments – is he angry, or just a troll?
Nick
I am not trolling. I have posted on various topics on this website on several occasions. I wince at groups of people enjoying a ‘love in’ and patting each other on the back when what they are saying is ill-informed or just plain wrong.
That shouldn’t go unchallenged I am sure you agree. And so much new atheism of the knd often spouted on this forum would make a true atheist cringe.
Bill