Muggeridge was a very complex one - a serial groper with almost as infamous a reputation as Saville - until he found religion late in life. Another one who it turns out was well-known for it at the BBC. He wasn't ever a clergyman, though he had faith his whole life: pro communism, anti communism, christianity, and was always anti-something. Pot, free love, contraception, swearing, monarchy, Life of Brian, and firmly in the Mary Whitehouse anti-progressive anything camp. Seems it was only his excellent writing that gave him the place as national asset.
So it wasn't a surprise to read that link and find he disliked most things - that seems to fit very well. SSC's commentary says far more about American attitudes than the actual history in places.
Anachronistic as even in 1979 nobody seemed that bothered abotu what the church thought of Life of Brian, whether christian or not. The furore was among the great and the good (lol) in the media, with a few town councils banning it, and a fuss on the TV. So the debate was already distinct and disconnected from the regular people and out of time. In those days the media and establishment moved slowly. It was the follow up Not The Nine O'clock News sketch as a reversal of the absurd debate that was the talking point.
The countless revelations of abuse over the decades since have reinforced the feeling that any place the church still held in society was ill deserved.
> And yet we have material prosperity and 'freedoms' - we are more depressed and anxious than ever before.
I see this as likely a symptom of the loss of community for individualism.
Historically religion and community went together, today they both seem rather lacking, but are separate and distinct. It seems to be the loss of community that is hurting rather than the general decline of faith across Western Europe. As I hinted above, it's that role the churches could have tried to fill, successfully, but chose not to.
Why couldn't Blazing Saddles be made today? Some of the jokes would be different -- mores have moved in 40 years. There's been racial progress, even in America!
So it wasn't a surprise to read that link and find he disliked most things - that seems to fit very well. SSC's commentary says far more about American attitudes than the actual history in places.
Anachronistic as even in 1979 nobody seemed that bothered abotu what the church thought of Life of Brian, whether christian or not. The furore was among the great and the good (lol) in the media, with a few town councils banning it, and a fuss on the TV. So the debate was already distinct and disconnected from the regular people and out of time. In those days the media and establishment moved slowly. It was the follow up Not The Nine O'clock News sketch as a reversal of the absurd debate that was the talking point.
The countless revelations of abuse over the decades since have reinforced the feeling that any place the church still held in society was ill deserved.
> And yet we have material prosperity and 'freedoms' - we are more depressed and anxious than ever before.
I see this as likely a symptom of the loss of community for individualism.
Historically religion and community went together, today they both seem rather lacking, but are separate and distinct. It seems to be the loss of community that is hurting rather than the general decline of faith across Western Europe. As I hinted above, it's that role the churches could have tried to fill, successfully, but chose not to.
Why couldn't Blazing Saddles be made today? Some of the jokes would be different -- mores have moved in 40 years. There's been racial progress, even in America!