The American Spectator

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A Britain No Longer Great

By Tom Bethell on 6.4.08 @ 12:06AM

(Page 3 of 3)

Parliament, when I was in England, voted not to hold a referendum on the new European "constitution." So the people will not be able vote it down -- as happened in France and the Netherlands. Yet the Labour Party had won the 2005 general election on a manifesto promising such a referendum. A former French president described the background in these words: "Public opinion will be led to adopt, without knowing it, the proposals that we dare not present to them directly." That is what is happening.

THE UNDERLYING PROBLEM in England, I believe, is the decline in Christianity. It is a Europe-wide phenomenon. Churchgoing in Britain is dwindling away, both among Catholics and Protestants. Rome has contributed to this decline by appointing weak bishops, believing that this will bolster ecumenism (a substitute for conversion). Church schools are funded by the state. Recently the Catholic bishop of Lancaster stuck his neck out and said these schools weren't teaching proper Catholic doctrine; sex-ed amounted to "throwing condoms at children" increasing teen pregnancy, and so on. He was soon called to testify before a parliamentary committee whose chairman said:

"It seems to me that faith education works all right as long as people are not that serious about their faith. But as soon as there is a more doctrinaire attitude questions have to be asked."

He reminded us that "this is taxpayers' money."

That is exactly the outlook of the political classes, but normally it is left unspoken. Parliament can tolerate religion, even fund it, as long as people don't really believe it. The bishop spoke out only because parents pressed him, it appears, and I won't be surprised to learn that Rome reacts by urging the bishop not to jeopardize funding in future.

The decline of Christianity is something the intelligentsia has long sought, but the rise of Islam may be its most momentous consequence. And that is feared, not relished. Witness the Archbishop of Canterbury's lame gesture of appeasement, calling for the partial recognition of Sharia law. One faith is moving into the spiritual vacuum left by the other. These, perhaps, are the most important underlying forces at work in Britain today. And rising prosperity is probably the most important cause of Christian decline. People will not think much about the next life when they have so many opportunities to indulge their appetites in this.

One night, on the BBC, there was a touching film called "White Girl," apparently based on a true story. It showed one of these sad, broken families moving into public housing in a part of Bradford now controlled by Pakistani Muslims. (Bradford is a large northern town, once the center of the wool trade, and now one of the largest Islamic communities in Britain. I went there myself on a brief visit recently.)

The daughter of this chaotic family -- the "white girl" -- meets the neighbors and goes with them to the mosque. She tells her surprised mother: "When I pray it's like everything's not all bad and f***ed up, like somewhere there's a place that I feel safe." Muslim propaganda? Maybe. But also believable.

The great unanswered question is whether the welfare state that has so de-moralized family life in Britain will likewise undermine the Muslims. At present they seem to be flourishing. Peter Hitchens accepts that the Muslim rise and Christian decline are but the opposite poles of a single phenomenon. Possibly, the corrosive effects of welfare will undermine the Muslims as well. He described seeing young Muslim men tearing about in souped-up cars on his own visit to Bradford.

Possibly, also, the greater morale that Muslims now seem to enjoy will preserve their families intact. My impression is that their men have not yet been cuckolded by the state -- certainly not in the mosque, and perhaps not in the home either. It's hard to say. I don't know of any good reporting that has yet been done on these crucial developments in Britain.

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