Today is Pentecost Sunday. It was celebrated in England for centuries. When I was young, there was still a Bank Holiday on the Monday following to mark the occasion as a special weekend.
In fact it still remains a holiday in France, a formerly Roman Catholic country where the Ascension of Christ 10 days earlier is also still treated as a holiday.
Indeed the only voice in the English media this Pentecost Sunday questioning the continued closure of churches in England is that of the Catholic Cardinal of Westminster, Vincent Nichols. In France the churches have been open for a couple of weeks now, subject to respecting social distancing rules.
So, why are the churches in England still closed, despite the easing of lockdown in so many other domains ?
Because this is a symptom of the Establishment contempt for Christianity. It is a symptom of the triumph of Materialist thinking within the British Intelligentsia. For them, God is a joke and the Christian God is beyond a joke because they identify the Church with shoring up the wicked old, traditional Establishment over centuries.
During the Second World War, the people were called to prayer by the King several times at particular moments of crisis.
But 75 years later all that has gone. Man himself and material experience are all that matter now. The Atheists and Materialists made a conscious effort over decades to assault the Christian establishment and to replace it with their own Religion. They have succeeded. Which is why the response to what is no more than a bad flu epidemic is Lockdown, and the total denial of our traditional English liberties.
In the 18th century – yes the 18th century ! – continentals visiting England remarked on the liberty enjoyed by the English. In a previous post on this site, when James VI of Scotland and the First of England came south in 1603 to take up the crown, he had to be reminded that the autocracy he enjoyed in Scotland would not wash in England where there were laws and customs constraining the Crown’s power.
Despite Tudor rule, Magna Carta and the countervailing power of Lords and Commons had brought about a different political climate and culture.
You may have noticed that the liberties Hong Kongers historically enjoyed as a result of British colonial rule based on English law and cultural tradition are now in the process of being trashed by the Materialist Chinese Government.
Liberties we enjoyed before the age of universal suffrage have been trashed progressively over the last 20 years by successive British governments – governments subject to the shallow and outrageous claims of political correctness – what Edmund Burke identified in 1790 as “atheistical fanaticism”. [see footnote]
In 2020 we have witnessed a Conservative government fall under the thrall of a faction of scientific experts whose reaction to Covid 19 was to follow the totalitarian Chinese example and subject the entire population to house arrest for an extended period.
The Swedes have shown how un-necessary this was.
In the Christian world view, there is the fundamental acceptance of our fragility as human beings in the face of the ultimate forces of nature. In the Christian worldview, there is the fundamental conceptual reference point that human beings are all made in God’s image, but are all capable of doing wrong. All life is sacred and to be respected. ALL. But all human beings are capable of doing wrong to their fellows made in God’s image. No one is above or below another. So All must be liable to the same restraints because we are all capable of sin.
HENCE THE CONCEPT OF THE RULE OF LAW !
But what is the equivalent in the Materialist Religion so beloved of our Intellectuals today ?
Man is the only Intelligent Being in the universe. Man is proving himself more and more capable of controlling his world via technology. In fact he can now control others, too. Man being man, some men believe themselves more capable of deciding for others what their best interests are. The intelligent and the knowledgeable – the Expert – will provide the Guidance for the masses. Don’t think for yourself – just do what we tell you !
We have witnessed a very concrete example in the years since the 2016 UK Brexit Referendum. The arrogance of the Clever people and Experts who think the stupid masses got it wrong because – being the stupid masses – they cannot see how they are being misled by the Reactionary and Dangerous forces of Nationalism and Hate.
These clever people reckon themselves to be so clever, so enlightened and so entitled to tell us all what to do that they continue to try and overturn the Referendum result 4 years on and to defy the results of two General Elections – the last in 2019 giving a resounding victory to Boris Johnson’s ‘Get Brexit Done’ policy.
That is why Mr Johnson is so manifestly a pet hate of the self appointed Guardians of our national Conscience and Welfare – the metropolitan liberal-left elite.
Democracy of course means that a decision is made by the Ballot box. But the Materialist Religion of the metropolitan liberal elite holds that anything which contradicts its central Tenets, such as Internationalism, is ipso facto WRONG and wicked. They are therefore totally SELF justified in destroying democratic decisions – such decisions being based on a misunderstanding which they the Enlightened must put right !
In reality, the Materialist does not recognise a level playing field. Their talk about Rights is a man centred conception of Rights, based on certain men’s perceptions.
They usurp God’s place as arbiters of Right and Wrong. We are now subject to whatever is the latest standard imposed by a clique of Clever Enlightened People. The assault on Trevor Phillips membership of the Labour party by the clique of Ideological Purists in the Labour Party Leadership is a perfect example. The Christian standard of “Thou shalt not bear false witness” is utterly trashed on the basis of a twisted conception of Rights.
Such is the Man centred spirit at work this Pentecost.
Ray Catlin
For Edmund Burke’s phrase “atheistical fanaticism” see paragraph 251 of Ray Catlin’s edition of Burke’s 1790 Reflections on the Revolution in France titled “Core Conservatism: Edmund Burke’s Landmark Definition” published by Westbow Press and available via Amazon.
The previous post referred to is Summary Justice, dated 1st December 2019 at
https://rightwing.institute/2019/12/page/1/
Conservatism Institute 