Magic Statistics

A member of the Order of the Knights of St Edmund is threatening to call down divine wrath on British chain store Debenhams if it goes ahead with a planned shopping centre in Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk. Alan Murdie, who has instructed solicitors to serve notice to Debenhams and the property developer, warns:

Unless they withdraw unconditionally all their plans for redeveloping the Cattle Market site by the close of business on Friday, November 18, and vow publicly never to set foot in Bury St Edmunds again, we will have no choice but to summon divine vengeance upon them.

On the feast day of St Edmund, November 20, there will be a denunciation, a cursing. Through prayer, the knights will summon the avenging saint. Once more, the ancient curse of St Edmund will be invoked to smite our enemies. And then, it will rest in God's hands.

Those hell-bent on wrecking the town may suffer insanity. They may suffer destruction of property, loss of fortune, extinction of line, drying up of the vital juices … death. May the Lord God have mercy on their souls.

The knights claim to have royal authorisation to invoke such sanctions against barbarians who would destroy the town's character: "They were formed on the order of William the Conqueror to protect the town and St Edmund's Abbey with its shrine to St Edmund, the martyred Anglo-Saxon king of East Anglia." Henry VIII officially disbanded the order when he dissolved the monasteries, but the knights claim that the first victim of the ancient curse of St Edmund was Henry himself, who is said to have gone mad with syphilis, screaming hysterically as he died.

Debenhams says they're not worried. But if the order's forewarning comes to pass, this could usher in a whole new dispensation in civil lawsuits.

Prof Alister McGrath, former atheist, notices this weekend's World Congress of the International Academy of Humanism in upstate New York. The meeting's theme, "Toward a New Enlightenment", is not a good sign for atheism's vitality because the Enlightenment is over.

The real issue, however, has to do with atheism being trapped in a time warp. Atheism is a superb example of a modern metanarrative — a totalising view of things, locked into the world view of the Enlightenment.

So what happens when this same Enlightenment is charged by its postmodern critics with having fostered oppression and violence, and having colluded with totalitarianism? When a new interest in spirituality surges through Western culture? When the cultural pressures that once made atheism seem attractive are displaced by others that make it seem intolerant, unimaginative and disconnected from spiritual realities?

The obvious answer would be for atheism to undertake a reformation — to examine itself in the light of its failings, and direct towards itself the negative criticism it has until now automatically fired off at anything religious.

The Enlightenment is over, the world has changed, and atheism must change as well. But that is not the answer they are looking for in upstate New York. Instead, they want the Enlightenment all over again.

I used to be an atheist myself, when I was young and foolish. Thinking back on it now, I realise I was walking around with blinders on.

via titusonenine.

Douglas Farrow of McGill University says that Canadians should refuse to recognise C-38, the bill legalising same-sex marriage, as a valid law and refuse to co-operate with its requirements. Prof Farrow argues that C-38 is illegal legislation and therefore not binding.

Firstly, he points out neither the Canadian constitution nor Canadian legal tradition accepts what is known as the positivist theory of jurisprudence–the view that a law is valid simply because it is passed by a duly constituted authority. The preamble to the Canadian constitution appeals to the classical tradition, which holds that, to be valid, a civil law must not be unjust and must not exceed the authority of the body enacting the law. (Prof Farrow mentions that Pierre E. Trudeau appealed to the classical view in arguing for legalisation of homosexual activity.)

[T]here is nothing in Canada’s constitutional documents that compels us to accept the positivist view. When, therefore, the government asks the Supreme Court whether Parliament may change the definition of marriage, and the Supreme Court answers in the affirmative, it must be asked whether the court itself is acting lawfully. Who, in other words, gave the court this power? On the positivist view, such a question arises only in connection with arguments about the division of powers. On the classical view, it arises as a question about natural law and about the limits of state authority. And on the classical view the state has no authority or power, in either its legislative or its judicial arm, to alter the fundamental meaning of marriage or to make the family as such a creature of the state.

C-38 represents a crisis for the Canadian state in part because it brings us to a decisive point in the process of replacing the classical view with the positivist, a point of no return. If the state can redefine "marriage," not to mention "parent" and "parent-child relationship," there is virtually nothing it cannot redefine. There are no more givens.

The classical view, despite being eroded and derided, has not yet been officially rejected. Canadians, therefore, are not obliged to accept the state's re-definition of marriage just because the government passes a law enacting such a re-definition. Canadians can decide that C-38 is ultra vires and act accordingly.

Prof Farrow goes on to argue that, according to both Christian faith and liberal political theory, the family is the fundamental unit of society; the family exists prior to and above the state. The liberal state comes into being for the purpose of serving the family's political needs. To enact C-38 is to reverse the natural relationship between the family and the state, make the family a creature of the state, and remove the natural barrier and limit to state intrusion and authority.

In sum, C-38 must not be recognized because it attacks and marginalizes the state’s main competitors, faith and the family, which provide a home for natural rights. It thus threatens to subjugate and absorb civil society itself. To recognize C-38 would be to hand over to the state what does not belong to it, and so to cultivate tyranny. That this handing over is demanded in the name of equality rights only makes it a more cynical exercise of illegitimate power.

The complete article is available as a pdf document here. Douglas Farrow is on the steering committee of Enshrine Marriage Canada.

Today at Mere Comments, Anthony Esolen blogs a similar recent article by Prof Farrow.

St Clement Danes Church is found in The Strand a short walk east of St Mary-Le-Strand. A church has stood at the site for at least 1000 years. Like St Mary-Le-Strand, St Clement Danes is now located on a traffic island in the middle of the street.

By the time the Romans withdrew from England, Christian worship had already taken root among the people. About AD 800, Danish warriors began sailing up the Thames, killing and pillaging and terrorizing the inhabitants as they went. In 878, King Alfred the Great finally overcame the Danes. The leader of the Danes, Guthrum, was baptized and agreed to terms of peace. Alfred allowed those Danes with English wives to settle in this area of present-day London. It is believed they took over an old wooden church already in place there.

During the reign of King Canute (1017-35), son of a Danish king, a small stone church dedicated to St Clement was built. St Clement was the patron saint of mariners and, since the Danes were sea-faring people, their church was given his name. Eventually it became known as St Clement of the Danes. To find out more about St Clement, Bishop of Rome in the late 1st century, click here.

The present church, originally built between 1680 and 1682 by Sir Christopher Wren, was one of 52 London churches built by Wren to replace those destroyed in the Great Fire of 1666. The new building incorporated the base of the ancient tower. In 1719, a spire was added by James Gibbs, a pupil of Wren. In the 18th century St Clement Danes was a popular church in a very fashionable neighbourhood of London. Among its famous parishioners were Edmund Burke, James Boswell, David Garrick, and Samuel Johnson. (A photo of Dr Johnson's statue, located outside the church, is posted here.)

By the 19th century, London society had moved on the West End, and St Clement Danes was neglected for a time. In 1889, however, the interior was completely restored and a new series of stained glass windows installed, returning the church to its original beauty.

On the night of 10 May 1941, in one of the last air raids of the Battle of Britain, St Clement Danes received a direct hit. Flames roared through the ancient woodwork, and by morning the church lay in ruins. For several years the shell of the church stood empty and unused. It was then that the Air Council proposed to the Diocese of London that the Royal Air Force be permitted to rebuild St Clement Danes as a perpetual memorial to those killed in RAF service during World War II. The proposal was accepted and restoration was complete by 1958. St Clement Danes was reborn as the central chapel of the Royal Air Force.

The floor is inlaid with about 1000 RAF and Commonwealth air force squadron and unit badges, and books of remembrance commemorating the dead of both World Wars are displayed in glass cabinets along the aisles.

The photo at left shows the centre aisle of the nave, covered in badges representing RAF units past and present. Each is hand-carved in Welsh slate.

(As always, click on photos for larger views.)

The beautiful 17th-century carved pulpit, at right, is believed to be the work of Grinling Gibbons. It survived the destruction of 1941 because it had been removed to the crypt at St Paul’s Cathedral for safe-keeping when war broke out.

The altar is made of oak. Above is a reredos of two large panels showing a painting in gold of the Annunciation. Immediately above that is a carving of a pelican, an ancient symbol of self-sacrifice.

Set high in the east wall are three stained glass windows. The centre window shows Christ in glory; on the north side, the Madonna and Child; on the south, a Pieta.

The photos I have posted do not fully reflect the overall focus of the church. The pulpit, altar, and windows are, to me, the most beautiful and uplifting features. But St Clement Danes is really a building dedicated to war heroes. The first thing one sees upon entering the front door is a huge floor medallion of the Commonwealth Air Forces. The back and side aisles of the sanctuary are lined with glass cases filled with medals and books of names of those who died in war. One of these cases is even engraved with a portion of Lincoln’s Gettysburg Address, which I thought incongruous for a Christian church. RAF and similar flags hang from the gallery. For this reason, Irving Hexham writes in The Christian Travelers' Guide To Great Britain:

In many ways the church is a nostalgic monument to national glory and a shrine for an ancestral warrior cult based on an essentially pagan civil religion overlaid with a veneer of Christianity.

Blunt words, but I think he has a point.

I’m certainly not opposed to honouring those who died for the cause of freedom. My father served in World War II. I do think, however, that the focus of a Christian church should be worship of God. St Clement Danes, as impressive and stirring as its memorial may be, can be accused of obscuring that focus.

More information on this church can be found here and here.

Links to all my blog posts about British churches and Christian sites can be accessed through the box located at the top of the page.