a practical view of christianity william wilberforce

Even our moral language has become tired and empty.

Instead, our moral discourse is characterised by a cold humanism whose most eminent values centre around ‘choice’ and a narcissistic individual expressionism tempered only by the weakly defined and meekly applied concepts of ‘consent’ and ‘harm’. Nonetheless, few could deny that Christianity is at best a sideshow in our national political conversation. Our constitution prevents this from happening wholesale with both Parliamentary procedure and the monarchy intrinsically tied to the Church of England and its liturgy. Though ‘Christian’ in the sense of having an established state church, true Christianity holds little sway in actively shaping the values and virtues of society.Ĭelebrated for some of its good work, be that contributing to foodbanks or housing refugees, the contribution of true Christianity as a foundational element of our national story has been dismantled, jeered, and discarded. Within all of this is a moral chasm, a society with no discernible nor comprehensible moral framework capable of dealing with the challenges of our time.

And the ever-increasing tilt towards individualism, both from the right in its neo-liberal form, and from the left in its progressive identity politics guise, is eroding common bonds and gradually undermining, and ultimately voiding any sense of the common good or communal society. The culture war debates over the definition of a woman, hate crimes, and free speech point to a deeper division playing out in our society.

Arguing and disagreeing is too much effort: much better to hate, resent and, in extreme cases, abuse and attack.” There is a “ general struggle in Britain to debate respectfully and fully, with even university students retreating into ‘safe spaces’ and ‘no platform’ policies simply so they do not have to encounter ideas they find uncomfortable. Yet there is also a sense, that far beyond the material challenges facing our nation there are several chronic cultural problems too. It is clear to see that both the political turmoil and the impact of COVID are directly responsible for much of the angst facing British citizens. įive Prime Ministers in seven years and a global pandemic certainly don’t help. Īnd the problems don’t stop there, Mortgage rates are rising, there are increasing amounts of sewage in our waterways and despite a rise in job vacancies, the number of post-50s leaving the workforce continues to increase. To what can we attribute our current political malaise? The problems are legion the NHS surgery waiting list hit 6.84 million in July 2022, economic growth is anaemic, and the number of people waiting more than a year for justice in the courts has grown by 302% to 11,379.

A practical view of christianity william wilberforce