Marginalisation

[poliphilo]

Religion is in danger of being marginalised, said the Pope- and so it is. But it's not something that's being done to it by a mean cruel world. He and his fellow theocrats are nobody's victims.  There's an audience out there for good news, bad news, any kind of news you happen to have and if the churches aren't getting their story across it's either because it's not a very good story in the first place or because they're not telling it right. 

The Pope delivered  his complaint in Westminster Hall in front of an audience including four prime ministers. Such marginalisation couldn't have happened in a godlier age. Back then- say a hundred and fifty years ago, when people really cared about religious matters-  he'd have been sitting not in person in Westminster Hall-  but in effigy on a bonfire outside.

Comments

[poliphilo.livejournal.com]

Religion is hugely privileged in this society. For one thing we have bishops sitting- by right- in the House of Lords- something that (I believe) isn't replicated in any other European country. Christians are so used to being cosseted and deferred to that they react to any little setback (such as the suggestion that they keep their homophobia within the limits of the law) as if they'd been attacked with hammers.