Death of a Denomination Part 2

Perhaps I should explain the "pro-Muslim" comment from my last post. The preacher who visited a URC and expressed the sentiments that went down like a lead balloon, was reacting against what some have called the Islamization of Britain.

This is not the place to go into a debate about multi-culturalism, so I will confine myself to observation. I need to make sure that you do not see these comments as racist. They are nothing of the sort. They do, however, reflect a radical change in the cultural landscape of Britain.

My old high school, Billinge, no longer exists. It was, at one time, the most successful State-run secondary modern institution in Blackburn. In terms of results, it was second only to the private, Royal Grammar School. Billinge is now for Islamic students only.

St. John's school, which my grandmother attended 100 years ago, which was run by the adjacent parish church, has been replaced by a huge mosque.

Instead of flat caps and shawls, Blackburn town center is now full of asian gangs, and women in full-length chadors or burqas. Whalley Range, which I often visited as a child, has become a ghetto where white faces are rarely seen.

We visited Tesco, a large grocery store, driving past another huge mosque. Inside the front door we were greeted by a large sign proclaiming "Happy Ramadan." All of the check-out girls were Moslem. All wore Islamic clothing.

I visited Blackburn Cathedral, which was empty. A display at the rear of the church showed photographs of staff members, including one of a young Pakistani woman wearing a hijab headdress - a liaison to the Muslim community.

In church on Sunday morning, at Trinity United Reformed Church, the minister suggested that we should use Ramadan as an opportunity to pray for our Muslim neighbors.

White flight has taken those who can afford it to the suburbs, or to neighboring small town such as Clitheroe. Blackburn is, as a rsult, almost unrecognizable. One interesting thing I noticed in the indoor marketplace: most of the stalls were run by Pakistanis. Many of them were selling Islamic clothing. Of those stalls still operated by white people, the majority sported Union flags, or flags of St. George, almost as though they were asserting their nationality in the midst of an alien culture. None of the Asian-run stalls bore English flags.

Then, when we returned to Texas, I got a letter from Lloyd's Bank, where we still maintain an English account. The letter was to inform us of changes in banking charges. I noticed that there were categories for Islamic students and graduates, and that those forms of banking are based upon Sharia law.

Yesterday, booking a flight from England for my mother, I noticed that one of the choices for mid-flight meals was 'Muslim'.

How has a minority become so dominant is such a short space of time? Multi-culturalism brings many benefits. I live, happily, in a multi-cultural community. But when one culture sets out to dominate another, and is not coy about declaring its intentions, then it is suicide for the host to fail to protect its own cultural heritage. Secularism seems to have no answer for the rising tide of Islam. No wonder Europe is beginning to produce its own radical terrorists. If the current disparity in birthrate continues, and if immigration from the Indian sub-continent does not diminish, then cities like Blackburn will be bastions of Islam within a generation, and non-Moslems will be reduced to dhimmitude. This is not a prospect I relish.

Words That Explode

I read an article recently by a famous churchman from a previous generation. W.H. Elliott was a Church of England cleric who, among other things, wrote articles for The Sunday Pictorial. His homespun wisdom and popular style endeared him to many. His words are still worth reading, even though they seem to come from a different world. Elliott died in 1957.

In an article entitled Words That Explode, contained within a book of reprints called Workaday Religion, Elliott complains, goodheartedly but seriously, about the prevalence of swearing. He finds it childish and unbecoming, a blight upon society that adversely affects our children and offends womankind (to use his terminology). He wonders whether the women should not be the ones to put a stop to it, at least by recovering the common courtesy of men not swearing in the presence of women. And then, towards the end of the article Elliott comes out with a word of prophecy: "It may be, of course, (that swearing is) one of the signs of a nervous, outworn, and decadent civilization." No sooner has he had the thought than he dismisses it. Surely that cannot be true.

We recently returned from a visit to England. The place has changed immeasurably since we moved, sixteen years ago. I will have something to say over the next few weeks about the sorry state of my old denomination, the United Reformed Church. But for the moment let me express the opinion that society has become harder, more cynical. There seems to be an absence of joy. Admittedly our experience was in the economically depressed North, but even there life used to possess a sparkle. When I grew up, in Blackburn, I was expected to be courteous and respectful. Now, that seems to have disappeared. On our recent trip I grew tired of reckless drivers, tail-gating then pushing their way passed; I cannot remember the number of times I witnessed a young person deliberately refusing to yield the pavement, elbowing their elders out of the way. No one holds doors open any more; there were no friendly greetings in the street; everyone seemed to be scowling at the floor. But what struck me as much as anything was the abuse of language. Men, puntuating every sentence with expletives is one thing, but when you hear mothers speaking to their children in the same way, and infants seemingly unable to talk without polluting the air with the foulest of language, then you know that something has changed.

Lancastrians always used to be known for their good humor, but now the stranger is greeted with curses that make your toes curl. I've heard it said that swearing is good for you, that it helps to relieve tension and can reduce pain, but I'm not buying it. Some people argue that it is only a change in social convention, and that it does not matter. But I think that it does matter. It is a symptom of the degeneration of society. Is it too simplistic to say that the charis of the Gospel has been replaced by the crudity of godlessness? Perhaps Elliott was right, after all?

Or, perhaps I should just get a life and buy myself one of these?