Ya know? Why is the UK imploding this way? They just don’t seem to care anymore over there. It concerns me. Any teabag regulars care to comment?

surrounded on August 18, 2008 at 10:53 PM

This American Anglophile agrees with those who say the biggest problem is the abandoning of Christianity. In fact I’ll take it back to Henry VIII. Just because he wanted a divorce, England broke away from the Universal Church. That started it all IMO, though as long as basic morality and most basic Christian teachings were still the norm (as they were for centuries) British society could remain fairly healthy.

But look what happens when a church no longer has a magisterium that gives it authority. Like most other Protestant sects, the Church of England went its own way, eventually adopting the fashions of the day, and instead of challenging the norms of society is now trying to accommodate them. The result is an Archbishop who seems to favor sharia law, a church that seems to be doing nothing to call its people back to godly living, and has lost millions of believers over the years.

I hang on to the words of John Paul the Great, who foretold (I think that word is not too strong) a new springtime of faith for the Catholic Church. We are going to see, I think are already starting to see, a movement of people fed up with our permissive society and ready to return to authentic Christian life. That movement will be the spark, perhaps one of many, that will turn things around to a great degree.

I just finished re-reading G.K. Chesterton’s The Everlasting Man (interestingly, this is the book that finally convinced C.S. Lewis of the truth of Christianity), and I was struck by Chesterton’s reading of history – he showed how at least five times over the last two millennia, huge upheavals in society brought about massive changes (at the fall of the Roman Empire, etc.). Yet through all these changes, the Church Jesus Christ founded did not fall, though by all logic it should have.

Through all the centuries when other gods and religions have come and gone, Christianity has remained, sometimes going underground, sometimes seeming to be nothing more than background to chaos and upheaval, but always returning stronger than before. Not for nothing is the Catholic Church the oldest continuous institution in the world. Only the Spirit of God could prevail in such a way – everything else that man has attempted has ended in overthrow or degradation.

Chesterton discusses the Roman Empire as a prime example of the summit of what man could achieve in terms of philosophy, social organization, and in other ways – and yet Rome itself could not stand. But the Church of Rome did.

Sorry I’m going on so long about this, and thanks if you’re still reading! It’s just that it’s becoming clearer and clearer to me that only the work of the Holy Spirit will allow us to overcome the evils of the world.

My hat is off to those agnostics and atheists who uphold morals and standards based solely on their own convictions – I really admire them, because I know I’m too weak to do likewise. And I suspect the same is true for many people. Not that religion is merely our crutch, but that if we didn’t have it we would be much worse as people.

Rosmerta on August 19, 2008 at 2:27 AM

In fact, St. Athanasius is such a hero of mine that I’ve dreamed of naming a son after him – but wouldn’t that be a terrible name to saddle a kid with! :D

Rosmerta on August 19, 2008 at 4:54 PM