To mimic Nobbly – “oh fer fucks sake !“
A whole bunch of Christians in the UK are getting their knickers in a twist because a judge has ruled that prayers have no place in local council meetings.
Churchmen and politicians are jumping up and down, foaming at the mouth, at this ‘assault on Britain’s Christian heritage’ ( http://tinyurl.com/7rmodzd )
Bullshit!
Ignore all the hysterical righteous indignation. The judge did not ban christians from praying. The case was . . .brought by a former atheist member of Bideford Council who complained that the council meetings always started with a prayer. What the judge actually said was that local council meetings should address local issues. If any councillors wanted to pray for guidance they could do so but that should be done before the meeting started and not be part of the meeting itself – http://tinyurl.com/7b7tshp
This ruling hardly constitutes an attack on the right of Christians to pray to their god – as many christian commentators would like us to believe – but I can understand their strident reaction. Whatever the situation in the past, Christianity is of little importance in the UK today – if church attendance figures are anything to go by. Even if one is generous and looks at the figures of those who attend church at least once a month rather than once a week, 15% of UK adults is not convincing evidence in support of the claim that the UK is a Christian country ? The truth is active support for the christian church has been in steep decline for a good many years. Particularly worrying for Christians too must be the age profile and sex ratio of those who do attend church – the dwindling number of attendees are primarily elderly and female. It is estimated that by 2040 65% of church attendees will be over 65 yrs old and 85-90% of these will be women (http://www.whychurch.org.uk/age.php)
With a church in seemingly terminal decline, it is no wonder christians are so god damn prickly about anything they perceive a threat to their (unjustified) privileged position in the UK !
