Christianity

MARY PLAYS NUNS' SCHOOL

MARY PLAYS NUNS' SCHOOL Now, Mary places papers all along the kitchen, On table, dresser, chairs: small girls at school; Herself, the nun, alone with children in her den. Mary is re-enacting school, the convent school, Where little girls are shaped, chastised, cut By holy women strung alive to God's tight rule. So she begins to teach: she stiffens, starts to strut Facing the girls, like nemesis engaged, A long thin stick in hand. Slowly she starts to “tut”. “Tut-tut! Tut-tut! Tut-tut!” Soon anger sparks to rage, Deep-rooted rage: a wounded eye-less Id Seething with rancid, poisoned life inside...

Political Islam, Christian Fundamentalism and the Left Today

Adapted from the introduction to Workers' Liberty 3/1 . In many countries, religion and disputes about, or expressed in terms of, religion have long been central to political life — in Christian Spain, Portugal, Ireland, or the USA; in Muslim Iran or Algeria; in Lebanon; in Israel-Palestine. Today, since Islamist terrorists attacked New York on 11 September 2001, religion, or concerns and interests expressed in religion, are at the centre of international politics to a degree without parallel for hundreds of years. We have not, as in Francis Fukuyama’s thesis after the fall of the USSR...

Political Islam, Christian Fundamentalism and the Left Today

In many countries, religion and disputes about, or expressed in terms of, religion have long been central to political life — in Christian Spain, Portugal, Ireland, or the USA; in Muslim Iran or Algeria; in Lebanon; in Israel-Palestine. Today, since Islamist terrorists attacked New York on 11 September 2001, religion, or concerns and interests expressed in religion, are at the centre of international politics to a degree without parallel for hundreds of years. We have not, as in Francis Fukuyama’s thesis after the fall of the USSR, reached “the end of history”. We seem to be reprising long...

Poplarism, Christianity and Socialism

As my regular reader will know, I am writing a book about Poplarism in the 1920s. I'm just drafting a section about the extent to which the Poplar struggle was influenced by religion. But I think there is more to be said about this than I want to include in the book, so I thought I'd share it with...

High court “purity ring” challenge

As I write this we are awaiting the High Court judgement on the case that a 16 year old girl, Lydia Playfoot, has brought against her school for stopping her wearing a “purity ring”. The idea of “purity rings” is imported from the Christian right in the United States. They are aimed at young people and are supposed to represent their commitment to chastity until they get married. They are the symbols of a movement called “The Silver Ring Thing”. The rings are inscribed with a reference to the biblical verse I Thessalonians 4:3-4, which translates as: “God wants you to be holy, so you should...

Why the cardinal went political

By Maria Exall Cardinal Keith O’Brien, the leader of Scotland’s Catholic church, has made an unprecedented threat to Catholic politicians: support the church’s position on abortion or face excommunication. While Catholic intervention on the issue of abortion is par for the course, such a direct intervention is a new departure. What has caused this outbreak of “political Catholicism”? The intervention of the Catholic church in England into the debate on the Sexual Orientation Regulations, the so-called gay adoption row, should be seen as part of the same phenomenon of a more politically...

Curb the cardinals!

The march of organised religion into the centre of political life continues, as does the growth of religious sectarianism as a force in British politics. The latest sign is the outrageous speech of Cardinal Keith O’Brien against abortion in Edinburgh on 31 May. O’Brien’s speech followed on Cardinal Murphy-O’Connor’s recent speech on lesbian and gay rights. O’Brien called on Catholic politicians of all parties to act as religious sectarians — that is, to use their political power and influence to change the law and impose their views on people who do not agree with them. O’Brien’s demand to...

Reactionary Christian fundamentalist Falwell Is dead

File this under 'Deaths That Will Cause Me No Tears'. Jerry Falwell, religious fruitcake and rampant reactionary, has departed this mortal coil, aged 73.

Here are some of his lowlights:

  • On Apartheid: a "bulwark for Christian civilization".
  • On AIDS: "the wrath of a just God".
  • On Martin Luther...

Religious Backwardness, Gay Rights, Civil Liberties: An Open Letter to Cardinal Murphy O'Connor (2007)

Dear Mr Murphy O’Connor, Courage in “Defence of the Faith” is, I suppose, a requirement of your office. Even so, I find it hard not to admire your courage — or bare-faced cheek — in attempting to “lay down the law” to the British government and the people it governs on what legal rights gay people in the UK should have and what legal rights granted to others should be denied to them. You are joined in this by your “brothers in Christ” Rowan Williams and John Sentamu, Archbishops of Canterbury and York respectively. You want the state to back you in forcing those who reject your religion...

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