Friday, February 13, 2009

"Wake up, Christian England! " - John Sentamu

Today let me recommend the article by Archbishop John Sentamu in The Daily Mail, which is primarily written in relation to recent events of anti-Christian oppression by the Labour lead state.

Key quotes include:

    Why then, while our children are encouraged to celebrate the religious festivals of all the major faiths, are there those in public office who seem to be ignorant of how this country's established religion gave birth to this nation?

    In the 8th century, the Venerable Bede, the father of English history, wrote not only of how the English were converted to Christianity, but how the Gospel played a major social and civilising role in this country by uniting a group of warring tribes and conferring English nationhood upon them.

    The opening clause of Magna Carta in 1215 acknowledged the importance of the Church and its right to propagate its views. "


and

    "Those employed as public servants and charged with running our local services, be they schools, hospitals or councils, receive their public authority only under a system of governance which is constitutionally established from the 'Queen in Parliament under God'.

    For public servants to use their authority to deny the legitimacy of the Christian faith, when they receive such authority only through the operation of that same faith, is not only unacceptable but an affront. "

12 comments:

rugfish said...

Christianity has been undermined to the point of extinction by the Labour Party.

The Labour Party meanwhile, parades itself as a lover of all races and religions whilst clearly defecating on the very faith which raised this country up from pagan heathenism, only to see it return under Labour's global multicultural diversity policies which is by any other name nonsense and heathenistic "TRIPE", which the Conservative Party is also blindly following instead of shining a light on the very thing we must 'conserve' if we wish to call ourselves 'civilised'.

Wyrdtimes said...

I have no time for Christianity or any organised religion.

It's a turn up to hear someone from the CofE actually mention England though.

Steven Carr said...

Just how dedicated a Christian is Gordon Brown?

'The Archbishop of York today issues an impassioned rallying cry to the silent majority of Christian Britons to 'wake up' and defend their beliefs.'

I look forward to seeing the Archbishop of York defend his belief that Jesus rose into the sky 2000 years ago and then disappeared into a cloud.

I have been through clouds on a plane. There is no portal to Heaven in a cloud.

What the Archbishop means is that Christians should wake up and demand the right not to have to defend their beliefs.

Man in a Shed said...

@Steve Carr - I think the occasion your talking about is called Ascension Day, and I imagine the Archbishop of York will be celebrating it.

I think you'll also find he'll defend Jesus being the Christ and the Son of God. (If only the same could be said of all C of E Bishops).

But your right to think its a spectacular claim (aka a miracle). But if you enter into the argument for a minute, not for God.

But its perhaps worth bearing in mind that most of the Apostles were executed for maintaining this belief. I would say the time to admit it was all a put up job was before they execute you. Since:

1) If you were lying - your death is pointless - but will be painful first.
2) You may be sent to your judgement with your last act being lying about God ( in those days they didn't have Atheists in any significant numbers ).

Steven Carr said...

'But its perhaps worth bearing in mind that most of the Apostles were executed for maintaining this belief.'

It is worth bearing in mind that this is as made up as the claim that Jesus ascended into Heaven by first travelling into the sky.

So presumably, Jesus thought Heaven was somewhere near Uranus.

As for these apostolic martrys, articles like Martyrs shows why the Archbishop will NOT be defending his beliefs any time soon.

People just know too much for the Archbishop to debate his beliefs in public.

What the Archbishop is campaining for is the right NOT to have to defend Christian beliefs - that they should be made immune from examination and debate.

Anonymous said...

..."the very faith which raised this country up from pagan heathenism"

I'm all for a bit of Pagan Heathenism myself - pagans gave us Stonehenge and the basis for Christian tradition and festivals.

Christianity gave us cathedrals built on ancient sacred sites and witch burning.

Personally I find the former far more friendly than the latter.

Man in a Shed said...

@PaganPride - I think you're being a touch ungenerous here. There is no doubt that our society, its values and its reforms owe themselves primarily to Christianity.

Stone Hendge looks good though - if only people wouldn't keep coming up with a new theory for it every week !

@Steven Carr - I think we're going to disagree here. I think you'll find the more you learn about our explanations for the world the less you realise we actually understand. We are good at predicting events within our experience, but outside that realm we generally become stuck very quickly.

I don't really see your point about "What the Archbishop is campaigning for is the right NOT to have to defend Christian beliefs - that they should be made immune from examination and debate."

I would have thought the issue is about being forceably silenced by the state on your beliefs in many areas of public life. As in the case of the 5 year old young girl at school.

Steven Carr said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Steven Carr said...

The 5 year old girl told her classmates they were going to Hell.

Sentamu campaigns for the rights of 5-year olds to tell their classmates they are going to burn in Hell, and that that belief should not be tested to see if there is evidence for it.

When challenged, Christians say 'I think we're going to disagree here.', rather than defend their beliefs.

Man in a Shed said...

@Steven - Do you have further information on what the girl was saying ( URL link ? ). Because I haven't found a reference to her saying that to her class mates.

Anonymous said...

I'm also fed up with the growing number of attacks on Christianty and Christians under zanulab.

It's great that we respect the right of other religions - including atheism - to practice their faith. We must however, staunchly defend the right of Christians to respect for our faith too.

Well done Man In A Shed and John Sentamu for raising this.

Man in a Shed said...

@Steve - OK I found a reference here - some way down, though its second hand.