Category Archives: History

My piece on the recent invention of teenage rebellion set me thinking about the related question of inheriting a traditional faith, versus the modern smörgåsbord of spiritual choices from satanism to shamanism, via the Salvation Army. Even a generation after Ginger Lawson, essentially my own teenage choice was whether to accept Christianity in some form, or not. Only a few years later did Eastern religion become a thing, and even considering Islam would have been absurd at that time. How different things are now!

I heard an interview with the Battle of Britain fighter ace Ginger Lacey the other day. Since it was recorded in the enlightened 1970s, the interviewer felt it mandatory to ask if Lacey had ever had doubts about the justness of the war, and consequently whether he had been troubled by strong emotions of hatred, or alternatively guilt, about shooting down and killing German airmen.

Not long ago I did a piece on the Shroud of Turin as an anomaly, both to science (as it appears to defy naturalistic explanations) and to faith (since, though potentially evidential, it is not mentioned in the documents or traditions of Christian faith).

As nearly everybody, even starry-eyed Christians, begins to get a sense of the dire situation into which British and Western culture has sunk, I’ve heard a number of people say stuff along the lines of “Politicians and scientists won’t save us – only Jesus is the answer.” And I don’t disagree… subject, though, to a number of serious qualifications.

Toby Young (of the Free Speech Union – join!) reports that he had a moment of revelation recently when he realised that England’s current ruling class is, in fact, a “technocratic theocracy,” acting in effect as a secular State Religion, its own beliefs being unchallengable truths, and its opponents irredeemably evil.

To follow up on my last-but-one post, consider this.

The time has come for judgment to begin, and God’s own people are the first to be judged. 1 Peter 4:17 The thing that upset many people most during COVID, and in the permacrisis since, was the total failure of a majority of people to comprehend that there was anything fundamentally wrong. That blind attitude has persisted into the most recent manifestation of the crisis (if you don’t count monkeypox and the NATO invasion of Russia at our expense), that is the protests and riots that have many US commentators wondering what has become of English justice, and even caused a friend in the impoverished and violent state of Sri … Continue reading →