Rector's letter for July Fowey News
Dear Friends
Goldfish don’t see water. Goldfish see what’s in the water, they see what’s refracted through the water, but I assume (I haven’t done the proper investigations) that goldfish don’t see the water itself. And yet there it is. It’s their environment. Universal but invisible. It shapes everything they do and everything they see. But they don’t see it.
If you’re a Westerner - whether you’ve stepped foot inside a church or not, whether you’ve clapped eyes on a Bible or not, whether you consider yourself an atheist, pagan or Jedi Knight - you’re a goldfish, and Christianity is the water in which you swim. Christianity is our environment, both unseen and all-pervasive. Which means that our problems with Christianity (and we all have problems with it, especially Christians!) turn out to be Christian problems.
Goldfish might not know the chemical composition of H20, but it’s still central to their lives, just as air is to us as humans. In the same way, Christian author, Glen Scrivener, in his latest book, ‘The air we breathe’ suggests we’re all dependent on the profoundly Christian environment we inhabit.
Take some of our basic cultural assumptions:
Equality: We believe in the equal moral status of every member of the human family, no matter their rank, race, religion, gender or sexuality.
Compassion: We believe a society should be judged by the way it treats its weakest members.
Consent: We believe that the powerful have no right to force themselves on others.
Enlightenment: We believe in education for all and its power to transform a society.
Science: We believe in science: its ability to help us understand the world and improve our lives.
Freedom: We believe that persons are not property and that each of us should be in control of our own lives.
Progress: We believe in moral improvement over time and that we should continue to reform society of its former evils.
None of these values are self-evident, nor are they widespread among the civilisations of the world. So where did they come from, and how did they get to become “the the water in which we swim”? The answer is that the the teachings of Jesus not only turned the ancient world upside down, but actually continue to underpin the way we think of life, worth, and meaning.
We might feel that Christianity is unequal, cruel, coercive, ignorant, anti-science, restrictive or backwards. That is, in fact, a pretty common list of objections to the Christian faith, and, at points, the shoe fits. But those objections are simply the reverse of the values listed above so the reason why those seven accusations bite is because, deep down, we believe in those values.
Our problems with Christianity therefore turn out to be Christian problems. Like water to the goldfish, Christianity is so pervasive that we cannot help depending on it, even as we protest against it. It is Jesus who makes the difference.
with every blessing
Philip