(Editorial note: I’d be VERRRY interested to see what my mother and uncles think of this column in particular)
Points of View
On Sunday mornings on Radio 4, just after the Act of Worship, there is usually a ten minute programme called “A Point of View”. I find it invariably interesting and am always sorry if I miss it. The essence of a free democratic society is that we have freedom of speech and freedom to listen to any and every point of view. One of the great ideas stemming from the Reformation was that there is not or ever has been an infallible Church (or an infallible anything else either). Both religious people and the scientifically minded need constantly to remember that although we must seek for truth we can never know whether or not we have arrived at it. The idea propounded by our justice system that we can tell “the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth” is rubbish; though of course we need to aim for that.
It is for this reason that many Christians dislike the recitation of any of the Creeds. I can say that to the best of my belief these statements of faith come near enough to what I currently hold to be true but I can only recite them because they represent a wide Christian consensus rather than what I whole-heartedly believe myself.
The best exponents of all the great world religions believe that tolerance of the views of others is part of their basic outlook. That is why I feel a deep sense of shame that so many of my Christian brethren are in fact intolerant not just of other faiths but even of the variety of theological opinions within their own ranks. I am sure that many Muslims are equally ashamed of the murderous intolerance of those who kill and maim in the name of Islam.
As it was well put by the philosopher Karl Popper, the one view we should never tolerate is intolerance. The only sphere in which we can confidently affirm that something is proven is mathematics. The Christian, especially if he be an archbishop, who declines to have fellowship with his Christian neighbour over differeing views of biblical interpretation or sexual orientation is behaving abominably. Long may we live with difference.
-Peter Graham
reflects my view pretty completely too. Quakers are very much anti-creeds, for the reasons my Dad states – and all for the other aspects of what he writes above – in fact, its hard to believe that it wasn’t written by a Qauker.
Yes, but my question is whether or not he lived by this view in your younger days.
I would say, by and large he did – but was more blind as to how his strongly held personal opinions might have come across to family and parishioners – plus he wasn’t so eloquent then.