Try Christianity
by Max Bayliss, Artillery Row:
Reflecting on the cross, we find a truth that is often too easy to forget.
There comes a day when a man has to pin his colours to the mast and tell the truth. This he must do, no matter how much he might upset his superiors, chums, or loved ones. These (web)pages are stocked with heroic individuals who are unafraid to “all it as they see it”. Well, the hour has come. Bridge, burn thyself. It’s time for my deeply damning indictment on the state of the modern C. of E.
Despite our endless efforts to get with the times, to become cool and trendy, to update our lingo, to capture the zeitgeist, the pen of P. G. Wodehouse still manages to express a multitude of sentiments from the pews. On this occasion I’m thinking specifically of a line from The Man Upstairs: “It is a good rule of life never to apologise. The right sort of people don’t want apologies, and the wrong sort of people want to take a mean advantage of them.” In his narration, Wodehouse has summed up how many Anglicans, perhaps even many English Christians, think about God, sin, confession and forgiveness.
First, there is the Stiff-upper-lip School. “It is a good rule of life never to apologise.” This crowd occupy old rectories and old mill houses all over the land. They are superb hosts, and generally wish that everyone could have the benefit of an AGA. Their dictum is “Best not to mention it”. This school believes that it’s best to just carry on as if nothing happened. Keep schtum, and it will go away. God’s a decent chap, and he’d rather we just didn’t talk about all that ghastly stuff.
Secondly, there is the Soppy School. “The right sort of people don’t want apologies.” These are they, living as they do in chic metropolitan flats, who believe that God doesn’t want apologies. “God knows my heart, he understands,” they say. “He’s too kind and compassionate a Father/Mother/non-gender-specific Deity to expect all that weeping and gnashing of teeth from his children. He Loves us unconditionally, so it’s all fine.”
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