The ventures of faith
Sir: Peter Hitchens eloquently describes the moral vacuum created by the permissive society, and suggests recourse to the Book of Common Prayer (‘In the shadow of the Pope’, 11 September).
The world, however, will never be saved by beautiful prose. Indeed, aesthetic indulgence may all too easily substitute for moral rigour. ‘We do earnestly repent, and are heartily sorry for these our misdoings,’ we Anglicans pray; ‘the remembrance of them is grievous unto us; the burden of them is intolerable.’ How glorious to surrender to such seductive self-flagellation. And then we go out and sin again.
The Christian message is that we can overcome sin only through suffering. This principle, however, can hardly be voluntarily entertained without a strong conviction that we may be rewarded or condemned in another life. Yet how many, today in England, truly believe in either heaven or hell? Who is prepared to risk what Newman called the ventures of faith? ‘After two thousand years of Mass,’ wrote Thomas Hardy, ‘we’ve got as far as poison gas.’ After four hundred years of Cranmer’s prose, we’ve got as far as Dawkins Knows.
Thomas Furber
Kent
Sir: I wonder if Peter Hitchens is reading too much into the Archbishop of Westminster’s decision to distance himself from the comments of Edmund Adamus, who described Britain memorably as ‘the geopolitical epicentre of the culture of death’. I suspect that, when his spokesman said Mr Adamus’s interview ‘did not reflect the Archbishop’s concerns’, he was not proclaiming the Archbishop’s opposition to the teaching of two popes, but trying to keep the Archbishop out of what Mr Hitchens concedes was a naked attempt to stir up controversy ahead of the papal visit.
It is well known in Catholic circles that Archbishop Nichols is in fact a strong supporter of Mr Adamus’s efforts to promote marriage and family life within his Archdiocese of Westminster.
Moreover, the Archbishop has criticised Britain’s secular drift almost as forcefully as Mr Adamus. In 2006, for example, he accused Labour ministers of being ‘engaged in an intense and at times aggressive reshaping of our moral framework’. ‘Those who are elected to fashion our laws are not elected to be our moral tutors,’ he said. ‘They have no mandate or competence to be so.’ I’m sure that Mr Hitchens would agree heartily with this sentiment.
Luke Coppen
Editor, The Catholic Herald, London EC1
Law of excluded middle
Sir: I hope the government takes on board James Forsyth’s ‘clear message for Middle England’ (Politics, 11 September). If you speak to those in the ‘Westminster village’, there is a cosy consensus developing that public services must now almost exclusively be for the benefit of the so-called ‘most needy’ — the poorest 10 per cent. But politicians ignore the middle 80 per cent of our country at their peril.
Councillor Tony Devenish
Westminster City Council, London SW1
Bomb blast
Your editorial (11 September) fails to recognise the contribution Bomber Command made to the allied war effort. in targeting German industry, Bomber Command reduced the effectiveness of the Nazi war machine and diverted resources from, in particular, the Eastern Front. In February 1945, at the time of Dresden, German resistance remained strong, with allied losses at record levels. The war needed to be won and concluded quickly (as technology was advancing rapidly with developments in rocket, atomic and chemical warfare) and Bomber Command’s contribution was profound.
Henry Woodruff
London SW3
Sir: Not everyone was appalled by the bombing of Dresden. Perhaps its present Mayor should remember that concentration camp slave labourers danced for joy during the raids.
Ian Olson
Aberdeen
Cameron’s finances
Sir: My heart bleeds for father-of-three David Cameron who, as Charles Moore says (The Spectator’s Notes, 11 September), must scrape by on his reduced Prime Minister’s salary of £142,500. I think Charles Moore demonstrates how out of touch he is by suggesting that the PM faces anything like the difficulties of most people, who earn a fraction of his income. Does he also expect us to believe that David Cameron has no other means of financial support, or is he just being provocative?
Lawrence Cain
By email
Newman’s evangelism
Sir: According to Robert Gray (‘Cardinal virtues’, 11 September), Newman was born into an evangelical family. Not so: he was born into an ordinary Church of England home but underwent a semi-evangelical conversion at the age of 15. Nor was this most historical and pragmatic of theologians ‘detached from workaday reality’. Nor was he — any more than any Christian theologian — ‘prepared to concede’ that Christianity ‘might not… survive’.
Ian Ker
Faculty of Theology, Oxford
Toil and trouble
Sir: If Mr Pleydell-Bouverie takes the advice of James Delingpole (Letters, 11 September) that work doesn’t bring happiness, I think that he may well be disappointed. I am 92 and still doing some work, having worked without a break of more than three weeks — including eight years in full-time military service — since I was 18. It is my experience that there is no greater happiness than results from a job well done. I have no regrets about having missed university and gap years. It is well known that those who seek happiness for its own sake rarely find it.
Freddy Salinger
West Sussex
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