laudable Practice

It was odd that the Presiding Bishop of TEC chose the Fourth of July this year - the 249th anniversary of the United States declaring its independence - to denounce and renounce "the Protestant tradition of patriotism ... as a tool of dominion". One might wonder why "the Protestant tradition of patriotism" is the particular target of the Presiding Bishop: Catholic and Orthodox patriotisms, after all, cannot be seriously claimed to have avoided the failures known to the Protestant tradition. As for the Presiding Bishop suggesting that TEC in 2025 equates to the Confessing Church in Nazi Germany, this is nothing more than the progressive version of  Eric Metaxas'  partisan manipulation of Bonhoeffer - equally unserious, no less delusional. Leaving aside the fact that this clumsy stance only succeeds in handing over to others the formative and influential "tradition of Protestant patriotism", it is also reveals a deep dislike of the heritage of the Prote...

The woes of the British Labour party have recently produced a series of critiques from those associated with Labour highlighting the party's failure to recognise the significance of national allegiance and patriotic sentiment.   As Tony Blair - Labour's most electorally successful leader in history - pithily put it: People do not like their country, their flag or their history being disrespected. He went on to explain that this was not an unthinking nationalism or blinkered reaction: The left always gets confused by this sentiment and assume this means people support everything their country has done or think all their history is sacrosanct. They don’t. But they query imposing the thinking of today on the practices of yesterday; they’re suspicious that behind the agenda of many of the culture warriors on the left lies an ideology they find alien and extreme; and they’re instinctively brilliant at distinguishing between the sentiment and the movement. They will support st...

I did not clap for Captain Sir Tom Moore.  Why? Well, because I am a relatively conservative middle-aged male, a crusty Old High Churchman, and an Ulster Protestant who is distinctly uncomfortable with such public displays of emotion, regarding them as tacky and lacking in respect.  A dignified moment of silence and a thanksgiving for Captain Tom at Evensong seemed much more appropriate. Which leaves me with the question if I am part of the "cult of White British Nationalism" that has been alleged by some within the Church of England as the essence of "the cult of Captain Tom".  To be clear, my concern here is the theology of the term used.  The cleric who originally tweeted it rightly withdrew the Tweet and apologised.  That should have been the end of the matter.  It was not.  He was subject to vile racist and homophobic online attacks.  (I have previously sought to articulate my thoughts on this example of 'cancel culture' from the Right.) A c...