Anglican Mainstream

By Kevin McKenna, Observer

[...]Yet Benedict's visit is important for the country, believers and deniers alike. It represents an opportunity for the remnants of Christian Britain to remind themselves of why they believe and to discover its source again. They may also care to remind their neighbours of the debt that our civilisation owes to the Gospel of Christ. The European Convention on Human Rights didn't waft into our collective imagination by accident. The concepts of equality, democracy and the right to be treated justly rather than be violated by torture or by economic and physical oppression were gifted to the nations by the Bible.

The great popular revolutions and struggles of downtrodden peoples were fuelled by ideas that first found light and expression in the writings of Old Testament prophets and New Testament evangelists. The nobility of labour and the sacredness and uniqueness of every human being was first guaranteed by the Christian chronicles.

If we destroy the Christian churches, then who will undertake the burden of acute social care that they provide for the nation? These organisations still strive to seek out and provide for those who are weary and overburdened; if they ceased to do so the cost to the state would be in billions. Thousands of young Christians, funded by church-goers, carry Britain's compassion to the world's most wretched territories.

Dawkins, Hitchens, Pratchett and their acolytes will protest the visit of this pope and they will denounce his faith and all its works. Perhaps, however, they may pause for a moment and consider this: that it was insidious Christianity that enshrined their right to do so and which endowed the universities that fed and watered their gifts.
 

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