Another purveyor of candy warns that without candy everyone will turn to heroin.
Another producer of slasher movies warns that without slasher movies people will start driving their cars up onto the sidewalks.
Another executive of a tobacco company warns that without cigarettes everyone will weigh 800 lbs and all the chairs will break.
Another bishop warns that without Christianity you get Stalin and Hitler, and the Telegraph solemnly reports it as if it were both important and true.
The Rt Rev Mark Davies used his Easter Homily to express anxiety at the consequences of undermining Britain’s religious heritage.
He cited the recent history of Europe to voice fears extremism would fill the void if Christianity was [sic] weakened.
“It has, indeed, been the experience of this past century, as both Blessed John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI have observed[,] how the most poisonous ideologies have arisen within the Christian nations of Europe,” he said.
JP and Ben aren’t the only ones who have observed that poisonous ideologies arose in Europe. Lots of people noticed that. It was kind of hard to miss. It’s the bit about Christianity being the preventive that’s tricky.
“If Christianity is no longer to form the basis and the bedrock of our society then we are, indeed, left at the mercy of passing political projects and perhaps even the most sinister of ideologies.”
Who says? On the basis of what? Christian Germany didn’t stop Nazism, and secular Sweden isn’t at the mercy of the most sinister of ideologies.
Bishop Davies became the latest influential religious leader to warn of the consequences of increasing secularisation.
And to be dutifully and naggingly quoted by the Telegraph. The Telegraph is really big on this “more theocracy please or else everything will explode” line of chat. I wonder if it’s being held hostage by a bishop.