Thinking about Matthew Parris and St Teresa’s bones.
Simon Jenkins also joined in with a critical comment although more tolerant in his remarks than Matthew Parris. Says Simon Jenkins in The Guardian, “Relics are jujus, religious placebos for the credulous classes, which presumably includes the inmates of Wormwood Scrubs. Most of us find them ghoulish. But other cultures think the same of our eating meat or worshipping football or reading the stars or anthropomorphising animals. In the hierarchy of weird pastimes, relic worship must be among the most harmless. We do best to regard it as a test, not of our power of reason but of our power of tolerance.
“Tolerance? There was no tolerance from Matthew Parris. What would life be like if his words became action? I said I have enjoyed reading Matthew Parris for some years, but his tirade was OTT! His call to action reminds me of what was not enjoyed in the former Soviet Union - those freedoms we enjoy in our Western democracies. How much do we value religious liberty and freedom of speech? There are contrary movements taking place that now threaten the freedoms we have come to take for granted in our Western world. Are we being watchful? When freedoms are taken away from others with whom we may not agree that allows for the removal of freedoms with which we do agree and value. Here is the difference between the Matthew Parris tirade and Simon Jenkins’ article. We are now living in a time where there is emphasis on human rights - and so it should be. But paradoxically, the emphasis on human rights is now a threat to human rights and freedoms of others. When we protect the rights of others with whom we disagree we also protect the rights of those with whom we do agree. More on this in the next post.
