It has been a strange experience over the last week to
see so many people falling over themselves to praise the overblown performance
of Bishop Michael Curry at the recent royal wedding. I didn't see it at the
time myself but was curious enough to look at it following the media
enthusiasm. My suspicions (because the media weren't going to praise it
if it really was spiritually sound, were they?) were confirmed. A
lot of heat but very little light. The fact is this preacher was not talking
from a position of real Christianity. He was preaching a worldly, easy version
of it, and doing so in a style in which hyperbole replaced substance and
emotionalism made up for proper doctrine. He preached a Christianity that fully
accepts you as you are at the moment. You are not an egotist and a sinner and
you don't have to repent because you are basically quite good enough right now.
You are not required to give up your ego or reject the world in order to find
the narrow way which is the only way that leads to God. Nothing but love is
required though for our preacher love appeared to be merely a kind of feel
good, everyone's wonderful kind of emotion that is quite naturally
directed to the soul in its fallen state. The more profound aspects of love
which include sacrifice, service and suffering were skimmed over. You might say
that it's a wedding so why should they be mentioned? But they are in the
traditional Solemnisation of Matrimony which is, as this sermon was not, a
proper spiritual document.
I saw a clip afterwards in which the Archbishop of
Canterbury was praising this performance (which is what it was) as being a
breath of fresh air. No wonder modern Christianity is so enfeebled. It has no
sense of depth or real spiritual knowledge which is why it replaces the
metaphysical with the political as Bishop Curry did with his facile talk of
love eradicating poverty. That is not what Jesus taught. You only have to read
the Gospels to see that Jesus did not come to make the world a better place for
human beings to live in here and now. He came to prepare them for entry into
higher consciousness, the higher world of God's kingdom. Anyone who reduces
Jesus's message to social matters is betraying his spirit, and, if a religious
leader does that, then he is misleading his flock. The blind leading the blind.
There are no two ways about this. Jesus did die for us because of love. Yes,
absolutely. But that death was to make a crooked thing straight again not to
leave it crooked because, well, crooked is good if that is what you are. God
loves us but not as we are now in our present unrepentant state. If that is not
made crystal clear then all talk of love is just an excuse to do nothing, and
might even serve the devil.
Contemporary Christianity is emasculated because it lays too much
stress on love. Obviously I'm not denying love is the foundation of the
universe. But if love becomes an excuse to ignore or deny real metaphysical
knowledge and proper theological understanding then it leads to the neglect of intellect
which is our participation in the mind of God. Besides, it is not actually real
love that is taught but a shallow, sentimentalised version of it that is more
about personal feelings. That is not love. Love is not the all men are equal,
warm and fuzzy thing this preacher appeared to be talking about and which seeks
to make the kingdom of heaven in this world. It is the light of spirit which
burns away all worldly falsehood and draws us upwards. The bishop did compare
love to fire but his fire only seemed to burn in this world. Its flames did not
rise above the clichéd platitudes of liberal ideology.
It seems to me that Christianity can be conceived of vertically
and horizontally. It can be a religion that aspires to the pure air of divine
being and spiritual truth as in, for example, the Gothic cathedrals and lives
of the saints, and as in deep prayer and contemplation. Or it can be more of a
social thing that may be religious but is not truly spiritual in any deep
sense. This sort may be more immediate but it tends to seek to excite the
emotions rather than pacify and go beyond them, and it relies for its effect on
hyperbole and emotionalism. It is a crude approach to the mysteries of our
being because it speaks to the lower parts of our nature, the emotions and even
the physical body, rather than to mind and soul. It is more
Very possibly I will be thought uncharitable in making these
comments but if anyone believes this sermon promoted the real teachings of
Christ they are mistaken. There can be no real love until there has been full
repentance and renunciation of worldliness. The politically correct is
practically always spiritually incorrect.
No comments:
Post a Comment