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Letters

Wednesday, 6th February 2008

Spectator readers respond to recent articles

There is nothing stopping James and his family from living a Catholic life in 21st-century Britain, but only 50 years ago I, as a gay man, would have been in prison. I understand his discomfort at the trendy dinner parties where he has had to keep silent about certain issues, but it depends which dinner parties one attends. For a gay person to face honestly the question ‘Do you have a family?’ is far more painful around a hostile table than to share one’s beliefs about how families should function.

On the second point, it is an unquestionable fact that we are living in post-Christian times. Although the message of Christ is still fresh (and, if G.K. Chesterton is to be believed, as yet untried), the voices which have proclaimed it are seen as hoarse and spent. ‘Preach the gospel at all times, and occasionally use words’ was St Francis’s gentle admonition, and a strategy of persuasion not coercion is the only viable way for the present-day Church.

Genuine liberalism is not to expect others to think as we do — something which liberals need to learn too! Christ taught that His Father causes rain to fall on good and bad people alike. Whether we Catholics like it or not, such watering has meant that growth and flourishing has often occurred in the most unlikely places. This is something to celebrate and build upon — and to discuss at the next dinner party.

Stephen Hough

London NW8

Smoked out

Sir: In June 2006 the then public health minister, Caroline Flint, told the House of Lords economic affairs committee that ‘in relation to deaths from smoking and second-hand smoke, the most serious aspect is smoking in the home. Ninety-five per cent of deaths are related to smoking in the home’. If she was right, then banning smokers from pubs is not merely undemocratic (‘Still fuming about the ban’, Rod Liddle, 2 February) but irrational. Is it not better that nicotine-addicted adults blow their smoke into the faces of consenting friends and acquaintances in a pub, rather than into those of their kiddies — especially on winter nights, with the central heating going full blast and the windows shut tight?

Maritz Vandenberg

Roehampton

Funeral music

Sir: I agree with G.W. of Pewsey (‘Dear Mary’, 2 February) about variety in hymn selection at funerals. However, equal care must be taken in considering the relevance to the deceased: some years ago, at the funeral of a butcher, the family’s unfortunate choice was ‘Lambs May Safely Graze’.

Peter Fineman

Barrow Street, Wiltshire

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George Cselko

February 12th, 2008 3:20pm

I would like to invite Matthew Parris to amend his "conclusion that life does not exist". The sheer ubiquity of the life that both forms our very essence and surrounds us wherever we look seems to have dazzled Mr Parris. He immediately dismisses the possibility of "consciousness" as an essential characteristic of "life" on the basis that "bacterium are not conscious." Apart from being a somewhat speculative finding, this seems to be a rather narrow view of consciousness as "self-awareness". Human beings vary greatly in their experience of self-awareness but retain at all times the potential even when sleeping or day-dreaming (otherwise they could not be awoken). This seems to suggest that there are two aspects to consciousness (or "life"): the capacity for awareness and its fulfilment. Recent studies have shown that some animals such as elephants are able to recognise themselves in a mirror. My body as it types this letter forms part of my "self-awareness" though itself consisting of seemingly inanimate materials. All entities interact with their environment and therefore have the potential for change in their constituent parts and even ultimately to "awaken" or become self-aware. Might it possibly be more accurate to conclude that it is in fact ONLY life that exists?

The Spectator's Notes

Charles Moore

New Labour has always preserved from the hard Left the Leninist idea that the party (or, in Blair/Brown theory, ‘the project’) is the only reality to be respected.

Diary

Rani Singh

I’ve just emerged from the gym, winding down after a day’s writing, when my son Sukhraj calls, alerting me to sudden news of explosions and fatalities in Mumbai.