The Dynasty that Birthed the Church of England

[Sukerkin]

The BBC yet again provides a fascinating litle thumbnail article on a deep subject:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-11743600

A refrain that often crops up when we have discussions about the evils been done in the name of Allah, is that Christians are just as bad, if not worse.

This is a truism. Indeed, I toyed with the idea of blanking out certain words in the opening paragraphs of the linked article and inviting readers to 'fill in the blanks' as it could well have been written about the problems being spawned by Islamic zealots now.

The point I ever try to make when this somewhat unfair comparison of religious 'wrongs' comes to light is that, yes, what was done by Christians in centuries past was awful ... but the faith matured (after the spilling of far too much blood) and now conducts itself in a largely more 'adult' than 'teenage' fashion.

What this article touches on 'though is why so many of we British are staunchly secular, even if we have a faith of one denomination or another. It's also why some of us, for whom "Queen and Country" means a great deal, are decidedly anti 'organised-religion'. The Church of England was doing fine and the fact that it's starting to get ever so slightly radicalised is a worry.

History is a text-book full of lessons of what went right and what went wrong in certain circumstances. Somedays I truly wish we would learn from it more than we do.

 

[Tez3]

I actually hate the Tudors with a passion! I can't actually think of enough bad things to say about them, them and the traitors Percy (who's family is still going strong damn them) and the Stanleys. I hate the lie that the Tudors were the good guys and Richard the Third was the bad king who killed the princes which is highly unlikely. If ever the phrase the victors write history was true it's in this case. Luckily I live in a place where Richard is still well thought of. The Tudors have much blood on their hands and they deserve evry curse ever hurled at them!

The Church of England for a long time has been a very gentlemanly religion, where it was considered bad taste to actually 'be religious', in fact most vicars used to be the second or third sons of the aristocracy and landed gentry who went into the church for a living rather than for any religious reasons. I think for a long time it was considered a very wealthy club for gentlemen, one reason women found it hard to be accepted as clergy.

One of the worst things ever is a 'trendy' vicar, C of E vicars should never be trendy, happy clappy or radical, it's just not on!