I once went to a Carr concert in Newcastle-upon-Tyne with every intention of yelling ‘heretic’ at him during the so-called heckle amnesty. I bottled it! Here’s my review. Here’s my review.
In his lambasting of Christianity, Carr compares the modern day Christian faith to radical Islam, with the hard-hitting punchline that Christians are always forgiving and don’t blow up anything compared to the Islamic fundamentalist militants and their suicide bombs.
However, Christianity is not without its violent past. The Crusades in the Middle East during the Middle Ages were known for their brutality. Equally vicious was the torture inflicted by the Spanish Inquisition on so-called heretics, as well as the Puritan witch trials, resulting in people being burnt at the stake for witchcraft.
In the United States, the Ku Klux Klan developed its own brand of fundamentalist theology, known as Identity Christianity.
And let’s not forget how Christianity was used over the centuries in Ireland to justify violence in the name of either Holy Mother Ireland or For God and Ulster.
I’m in no way suggesting that the modern day Christian Churches return to their Crusader heritage or indeed start copying Islamic radicals and inflict violence against people or places they consider satanic.
What Carr was getting at in his jokes was that Christianity is not taken seriously because it is viewed as a push over theology, and therefore irrelevant in today’s society.
It’s all very well saying that Christianity needs to ‘man up’, but how would this work practically given an increasingly secular society?
Many Christians in 2024 push the image of their faith through the ethos that ‘God Is Love’. Many Christians feel uneasy when reminded of the New Testament story of Jesus Christ throwing the money changers out of the temple.
They seem to take the view the Church must be compassionate and forgiving rather than taking positive action. Put bluntly, the Church will never be able to become an effective lobby group in society if it does not get evangelicals elected to the various political chambers - council, the Assembly, and Westminster.
I have often maintained - to totally misquote a well known republican - that the Churches need to move forward with the Bible in one hand and the ballot paper in the other. Here’s one such column.Here’s one such column.
Christians cannot complain if politicians approve legislation which undermines the influence of the Church if those same Christians adopt an abstentionist policy towards voting.
It makes me frustrated politically when I hear Christians moan about the so-called state of society and then openly say they don’t even register to vote. For many in the Christian faith, especially in evangelical and fundamentalist traditions, voting is ‘off the world’ and Christians should adopt a ‘come ye out from amongst them’ attitude to politics.
My personal view of the incident when Christ threw the money changers out of the temple is that He was encouraging us to take positive action - and that means getting off our backsides, out of the pews and into the polling booths come election days.
One united front which Christians of all denominations must campaign for is compulsory voting, similar to the Australian electoral system. Could you imagine how society would be changed if, for example, some 96 per cent of all Christians in Northern Ireland voted in the next Westminster General Election?
This is not to re-create the power of Church and State as existed in the 26 Counties especially during the de Valera era when the Catholic bishops wielded tremendous influence over the Dail in Dublin.
Rather than Church and State, the ethos would be Church on State. This is not to say either that Christians should form their own political party and put up candidates because of the perception that many existing parties are becoming increasingly pluralist in their agendas.
In Unionist politics, for example, Christians have tried to influence the agenda through the Protestant Loyal Orders, such as the Orange and Black, as well as through pressure groups, such as The Caleb Foundation and Evangelical Protestant Society.
But there is really only one proper means of influence - the ballot box. The Churches must have the courage to launch an inter-denominational campaign for compulsory voting in both the United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland.
The bitter reality is that there is a growing perception that current political parties really only pay lip service to the views of the Churches. The present crop of elected representatives seem more interested in pursuing the so-called liberal, pluralist middle ground voter base.
However, with compulsory voting, those same elected representatives would certainly sit up and take notice if they knew that 96 per cent of Christians in their constituencies would turn out at the polling booths on election day.
If the Churches’ influence continues to fade in the coming years, or is ignored altogether, they have only themselves to blame. Christians should certainly read the Bible, then cast their vote in the ballot box. That will give the Churches real power in the various political chambers.
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| Follow Dr John Coulter on Twitter @JohnAHCoulter Listen to commentator Dr John Coulter’s programme, Call In Coulter, every Saturday morning around 10.15 am on Belfast’s Christian radio station, Sunshine 1049 FM. Listen online. |
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