Not Ashamed
In case you hadn't seen it, there is currently a campaign underway, backed by Rowan Williams and many other churches for Christians to stand up and announce they are not ashamed to be Christians and to remind people about the moral roots of this country.
I definitely agree that Christians need to stand up, we don't hear anything about them these days, I mean let's take a standard day in my life:
0745
I wake up and groggily realise I've been woken by my clock-radio playing Radio 4, in between John Humphries shouting at people is a little program called 'Thought for the Day' a quarter of one of 112 hours of religious programming on the BBC.
0800
I get up and look outside my eleventh floor window from which I can see 3 very visible churches, none of which pays tax.
0830
I leave the flat and walk to work, along the way I stroll past a model shop which used to be a Christian bookstore (obviously couldn't compete with Prowlers, the gay sex shop directly opposite) and past yet another open Christian book store. I decide to take the scenic route and walk past Birmingham cathedral which is advertising the times of its services
0845
I arrive at work, having successfully followed every law ordered of me by the parliament of this country led by a Christian man and an overwhelmingly Christian government and approved by the 26 bishops who make up the Lords Spiritual without any kind of homage to democracy.
1300
I leave for lunch and realise I need to buy bread, so I walk down New Street where a preacher woman is enthusiastically damning me to Hell and being allowed to do it, rather than being taken to a padded room with a nice view of a duck pond.
1305
I buy the supplies with notes emblazoned with an image of the head of our state religion HRM Elizabeth II
1330
I enjoy looking at all the Christmas decorations and look forward to the state holiday on Christmas, (Oh, and Heaven forfend we use anything other than 'Christmas'. Birmingham Council tried that one year with 'Winterval' I think they finally took the lynched bodies down last year.)
1730
I decide that I'll go home to my parent's house to pick some stuff up tonight, so I wonder down to Moor Street (a street blessed with at least two churches right next to one another) and hear Birmingham City Mission playing loud Christian music in the car park to gather in the homeless.
Between 1745 and 1845 depending on the busses
I board a bus and sit down underneath an advertisement for some branch of Christianity.
We drive past nine churches, a Sikh temple and two mosques.
1900
I say hello to everyone and sit down to watch TV. After flicking past 'The God Channel' I decide to watch the news wherein the archbishop of canterbury is given a free platform to share his views on some global problem.
2030
Dad mentions he's saved a bunch of books I'd left in my room including the Gideons New Testament I was handed in school at the age of 11
Exactly how much recognition do Christians WANT for goodness' sake?! There are countries where Christians are persecuted, like Iraq and China but Britain is not one of them! This is the group given the broadest stage for their views, their activities aren't taxed and employment laws bend around them to accommodate their bronze-age bigotries.
So: To the 'Not Ashamed' campaigners, if I happen to encounter any of you over-privileged whiners with a sense-of-entitlement bigger than the crosses that infest the skyline, you shouldn't expect me to be ashamed when I tell you exactly what i think of you and your fairy-tales.
I definitely agree that Christians need to stand up, we don't hear anything about them these days, I mean let's take a standard day in my life:
0745
I wake up and groggily realise I've been woken by my clock-radio playing Radio 4, in between John Humphries shouting at people is a little program called 'Thought for the Day' a quarter of one of 112 hours of religious programming on the BBC.
0800
I get up and look outside my eleventh floor window from which I can see 3 very visible churches, none of which pays tax.
0830
I leave the flat and walk to work, along the way I stroll past a model shop which used to be a Christian bookstore (obviously couldn't compete with Prowlers, the gay sex shop directly opposite) and past yet another open Christian book store. I decide to take the scenic route and walk past Birmingham cathedral which is advertising the times of its services
0845
I arrive at work, having successfully followed every law ordered of me by the parliament of this country led by a Christian man and an overwhelmingly Christian government and approved by the 26 bishops who make up the Lords Spiritual without any kind of homage to democracy.
1300
I leave for lunch and realise I need to buy bread, so I walk down New Street where a preacher woman is enthusiastically damning me to Hell and being allowed to do it, rather than being taken to a padded room with a nice view of a duck pond.
1305
I buy the supplies with notes emblazoned with an image of the head of our state religion HRM Elizabeth II
1330
I enjoy looking at all the Christmas decorations and look forward to the state holiday on Christmas, (Oh, and Heaven forfend we use anything other than 'Christmas'. Birmingham Council tried that one year with 'Winterval' I think they finally took the lynched bodies down last year.)
1730
I decide that I'll go home to my parent's house to pick some stuff up tonight, so I wonder down to Moor Street (a street blessed with at least two churches right next to one another) and hear Birmingham City Mission playing loud Christian music in the car park to gather in the homeless.
Between 1745 and 1845 depending on the busses
I board a bus and sit down underneath an advertisement for some branch of Christianity.
We drive past nine churches, a Sikh temple and two mosques.
1900
I say hello to everyone and sit down to watch TV. After flicking past 'The God Channel' I decide to watch the news wherein the archbishop of canterbury is given a free platform to share his views on some global problem.
2030
Dad mentions he's saved a bunch of books I'd left in my room including the Gideons New Testament I was handed in school at the age of 11
Exactly how much recognition do Christians WANT for goodness' sake?! There are countries where Christians are persecuted, like Iraq and China but Britain is not one of them! This is the group given the broadest stage for their views, their activities aren't taxed and employment laws bend around them to accommodate their bronze-age bigotries.
So: To the 'Not Ashamed' campaigners, if I happen to encounter any of you over-privileged whiners with a sense-of-entitlement bigger than the crosses that infest the skyline, you shouldn't expect me to be ashamed when I tell you exactly what i think of you and your fairy-tales.