Theo Hobson is co-editor of Created for Love: Towards a New Teaching on Sex and Marriage.
It is one of the most important religion stories for a decade or so. The Church of England seems to have changed its mind on church schools. A few days ago, the Bishop of Oxford, the Right Reverend John Pritchard, who is also chairman of the Church’s board of education, said he wanted just 10
Why does the American religious right get all the attention: is there not also a religious left? Why is it always on the back foot? Why, though such a basic part of the nation’s history, does it seem un-American? It suffers from the same problem as its political cousin: most Americans think of the left
It’s very telling that, in a debate earlier this week, Christine O’Donnell seemed not to know that the separation of church was in the Constitution. The wider point is that the religious right, which underlies the Tea Party movement (as a recent study shows), is built on a skewed version of American history. It depends
Most of the media responses to Griffin have been a bit complacent. He was exposed as a dodgy idiot, the vast majority say. I thought he came across pretty well, considering the wrongness of his views. I was uncomfortably reminded that the message of an extreme reactionary is always surprisingly seductive, tempting. The essential appeal
Theo Hobson is depressed by the media’s rapturous welcome for Grindr, a new software device that helps gay men locate each other for impromptu sex I am not a homophobe. But I suppose I might be a pinkophobe. I do not think that homosexuality is wrong, bad, inferior, hateful in the eyes of God. And
Theo Hobson attends Grace, an alternative Christian service in west London, and finds it arty, irreverent, postmodern — and full of people seeking a new way to worship I went to church last weekend. Sort of. It was a Saturday evening service run by a group of laypeople in an Anglican church in Ealing. It’s
Is David Cameron religious? In the course of his interview with the Evening Standard he provides a clear glimpse of his attitude to religion. He sees it as something that should be advocated with the utmost care, if votes are not to be squandered. He is asked if faith in God is important to him.
Northern Ireland is trying to decommission its grammar schools. The case against selection is being made with the familiar vehemence: a system that allows an 11-year-old child to fail a test and be branded second-rate is retrograde. This seems to be the official line of all the main political parties in mainland Britain. But none
The Quilliam foundation has found that 97% of imams working in Britain are foreign-born, and that nearly half of mosques do not make provisions for women. A huge proportion of mosques are led by rabble-rousers, obsessed by Middle Eastern politics rather than the actual day-to-day needs of their community. In short, Muslim religious culture is
Andrew Motion has confirmed his image as the ultimate middlebrow, wet liberal. He is passionately keen that students should read the Bible, so that they can progress on to the true faith of Eng-Lit. ‘I am not for a moment suggesting that everybody be made to go to church during their childhood’ he told the
The main thing that struck me, as I read Rupert Shortt’s biography of Rowan Williams, was how amazingly sheltered the Archbishop of Canterbury’s life has been. I don’t mean economically privileged (most of us are pretty much on a level in this respect), or emotionally easy (whose is?) – I mean ideologically and institutionally fixed.
You’d think Darwin created the world all by himself with a few test-tubes, the amount of attention he’s getting. I’m not denying he’s a brill biologist, but there’s more things in heaven and earth than are dreamt of in his theory. And the discussion about science and religion that surrounds him is just bo-oring. No
Commentary on the Carol Thatcher business has been predictably superficial and self-righteous. Its real meaning is that racial correctness can only be understood in relation to religion. Bear with me. Did she commit a serious offence? She referred to someone as a golliwog, obviously knowing that it was a taboo word, capable of causing great
I’d call what we watched on television earlier a religious ceremony – I suppose it might have been the biggest in history. In a sense it was rather like an church wedding – a religious ceremony with such an important secular function that one is apt to be a bit surprised when the vicar starts
“There’s probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life.” This is what the theologically-minded buses are saying. Let’s pass over the weird first sentence and look at the second. Most religious reactions to this slogan have objected, with some indignation, to the assumed link between religion and worrying, and atheism and enjoyment. How
It’s the debate of our day, the meta-debate if you like. It unites the issues of Muslim extremism, creationism, irritable atheism, faith schools, Britishness, the future of the monarchy, Sarah Palin, Ruth Kelly: all the juiciest talking points. The radio show The Moral Maze seems to return to it with increasing frequency: Michael Buerk has
While I admire Charles Moore’s willingness to inherit the mantle of Mary Whitehouse, I don’t think he has quite put his finger on the essence of the Brand-Ross business. The large public outcry provoked by the call to Andrew Sachs can’t be channelled into a general war on smut at the BBC. I don’t think
Prince Charles has re-announced his desire to be ‘Defender of Faith’- to drop the definite article that ties this title to a particular church (or indeed a particular religion). He first announced this in 1994, in that embarrassing interview with Jonathan Dimbleby. Of course this title is not the only thing that ties the monarchy
In an interview with Stuart Jeffries in the Guardian, Rowan Williams has a nice little dig at Dawkins – he’s calmly patronising, seemingly by accident. “As he escorts me from his study, he tells me he admires Dawkins. “There’s something about his swashbuckling side which is endearing.” He invited atheism’s high priest and his wife
On the Moral Maze they were discussing the place of religion in society again. What struck me was that none of the Christian participants was willing to defend the establishment of the Church of England. The Catholic commentator Clifford Longley was for disestablishment, and Rev George Pitcher of the Telegraph supposed that he was too.
