Bible stories

I have trouble with many Bible stories, especially when somebody reports something which was uttered even though they were obviously not present at the time. In fact I have serious doubts about much of the Old Testament.

Whilst some stories are, I suppose, 'fun' for children, what are we seriously asking them to believe? The image says it all.

When the church does harm

I am sure it is all different now but, growing up, one was exposed to church teachings. One of these was - as I understood it as a child - to 'like' everybody and not hate others.

It is unwise to tell children this because they will dislike quite a lot of their peers: they will also not be able to distinguish between simple dislike and genuine hatred. This will set up a situation of cognitive dissonance which they will struglle to solve.

Thus, I really could not stand a boy called Nigel who was at my school and in the choir. I was really worried about this and hoped God would not take in out on me in some way.

Growing up, children have to gain experience of the different personalities they will encounter and they have to learn to deal with them. Simply to suggest that if child A hates child B then child A is in the wrong can do great harm.

Hymns for children

If I ever have to play "Kumbaya, My Lord" I am not sure what I shall do: I hate it. (I could, however, listen to the great Judith Durham singing anything.)

Yes, children need approachable hymn repertoire but, by the time I was at primary school, we were singing 'proper' hymns and we had hymn practice every week. The only 'new' items we had were when the Twentieth Century tunes were first introduced in the late 1960s, such as "At the Name of Jesus" to Camberwell which is fine.

So, imagine my dismay when I found "We have a King who rides a donkey" in a hymn book.

 I'm sorry, but it does nothing for me. Can you see what I mean?

Confession

For some reason I was dwelling, today, on my Confirmation in 1970 and I remembered how, a few days before the service, we were required to go to confession. A large group of school pupils were prepared for confirmation (many of us were choristers) and the then Chaplain of the school and the Precentor of the cathedral had us all in the cathedral during the school day for an hour or two. The rehearsal was on a different day.

We were told that we each needed to have a pure heart before we were confirmed and that we needed to make our confession. We were all sent to sit some distance away from each other and think about what we would confess.

Now for Catholics I would not be surprised to learn that this is normal; even these days. However, we were Anglicans and although the rite of confession does exist I doubt it plays as large a part in church-goers' lives as it does for Catholics.

For a child of 11 to be sent into a corner and told to come up with some things to confess strikes me as a form of abuse. I made some things up such as Greed (eating too many sausages!) but I threw in a bit about Hate, as there was a boy I did not like.

I didn't feel any more pure afterwards. In fact I felt the whole things was an excuse for the priests to hear our darkest thoughts!

Religion and young people

When I was young it seemed to me that to be accepted by God one had to be a 'good person'. One aspect of this involved not hating people. As John and Matthew put it...

• If anyone says, “I love God,” and hates his brother, he is a liar; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen cannot love God whom he has not seen.
• But if you do not forgive others their trespasses, neither will your Father forgive your trespasses.

This caused me anxiety because there were several boys I did not like at school. Now this is perfectly normal because, let's face it, some people can be complete twats. Even those who were not in that category could have personalities so alien to one's own that - they could be loud and 'in your face'  - that one felt very uncomfortable when they were around.

So, essentially, the church seemed to be saying that the normal feelings one had whilst growing up and learning how to deal with people were wrong because you had to like everybody.

These days there is possibly more guidance. Last Sunday the sermon involved the vicar telling us that some students at theological college used to make her blood boil - gosh, honesty in church. I cannot quite recall how she dealt with this.

Feelings of guilt (i.e. that one is falling short of what is expected) are dangerous for children and can give them a complex of inadequacy.

Church for Kiddies

My reader (!) will be aware that I favour a certain kind of churchmanship. I came across a video which sums up all that is wrong - from my perspective - with church worship in the 21st century.

I understand that the C of E wants to be approachable and welcoming: it may have been stuffy and remote in the past and a church style of the 1950s-1970s may not attract people these days. That said, I find plenty wrong with the video below (for as long as it stays on YouTube).

• A church service should not start with someone shouting "Good morning" as is so often the case now. Yes, this is not a formal service where the vicar has processed in; he has to get the congregation's attention somehow. Oh wait, I find that even if I try to set an atmosphere as an organist I have to contend with chatter and noise.
• At 57 seconds we see and hear the vicar leading the clapping. Again, one has to hear the reading just before this to set it in context but I would feel very uneasy in this setting. What is the point of clapping? This is not an old peoples' home where one is trying to get geriatrics to join in with enthusiasm. It all seems false to me. I accept that this may have been shortly after Lockdown (March 2021) and people may have not been too happy to sing in an enclosed space so clapping was an alternaive. See how I am getting to see the other side of the story?
• Then they go outside (this is obviously an edited service). I have never been a fan of singing outside and the trite "Hosanna" they are singing with a tambourine backing is less than dignified IMHO.

I have never been to Haddon and this was just one video which popped up as a result of some searching I have done in the area close by.

One must remember that, despite what derision I may pour upon this act of worship, the vicar may be extremely good with his flock, at the bedside of ill people, comforting the bereaved and everything else that an incumbent does. It is not his fault. He may have had a job before entering the priesthood and be quite worldly wise: I do not know. He will have been trained for his role and will be relying upon what he has been taught is the correct way to lead worship in the 21st century. It may be that he comes from an evangelical tradition; who knows.

So apologies to Haddon; this video just illustrates a point or two.

My question is, "Where does dumbing down stop?"