Here's a news flash from Old Blighty! Walt's man on the Clapham omnibus [Seems to be a legal joke. Ed.] has sent us this article from today's Telegraph:
"Britain is no longer a Christian country and should stop acting as if it is, says judge"
It's not really news, izzit. Everyone knows that only a small minority of Brits who call themselves Anglicans actually go to church except for "hatched, matched and dispatched" occasions -- baptisms, weddings and funerals -- and even those rituals are being skipped by Gen Y and the Millennials.
Are there any religious people left in England? Sure. Plenty of them. Evangelical Protestants, Catholics, some Jews, and... wait for it... hundreds of thousands of followers of the Prophet Mohammed. Yes, Islam is the fastest-growing religion in England, so a two-year commission into the place of religion in British society has called for public life to be systematically de-Christianized to reflect the reality of modern Britain.
The Commission on Religion and Belief in Public Life, chaired by the former senior judge Baroness Butler-Sloss and involving leading religious leaders, has discovered that secular humanism is the prevailing "belief system" in Britain. It says that the decline of churchgoing and the rise of Islam and other faiths mean a "new settlement" for religion is needed in the UK, giving more official influence to non-religious voices and those of non-Christian faiths.
The Telegraph says that the report has provoked a furious row, being condemned by Cabinet ministers as "seriously misguided". The Church of England -- "The official church of Cool Britannia" -- said the commission appeared to have been "hijacked" by humanists. That is wrong. It's not the commission that has been hijacked, but the C of E itself!
The report has several controversial things to say, including a claim that faith schools are "socially divisive". So that will probably mean the end of Anglican and Catholic schools, and says that the selection of children on the basis of their beliefs should be phased out. It also accuses those who devise some "Religious Education" syllabi of "sanitizing" negative aspects of religion in lessons. And, it suggests, the compulsory daily act of worship in school assemblies should be abolished and replaced with a "time for reflection".
The report backs moves to cut the number of Church of England bishops in the House of Lords and give their places to imams, rabbis and other other non-Christian clerics as well as evangelical pastors.
As if that weren't enough, the Commission also calls for a rethink of anti-terror policy, including (get this!) ensuring students can voice radical views on campus without fear of being reported to the security services. Yessir, freedom of speech is a great thing, especially when it protects hate speech. Right? Oh... only for non-Christians, you say. Got it. Welcome to the new, diverse, multicultural, not-so-Great Britain.
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