The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
The Death of Christian Britain
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— <strong>The</strong> <strong>Death</strong> <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> <strong>Britain</strong> —<br />
for boys and young men to restrain their physical energies on Sunday, but<br />
such restraint is highly beneficial for them morally, we believe also physically.’<br />
56 And even when sport was utilised by evangelicals, as in the Boys’<br />
Brigade, there was no complete ditching <strong>of</strong> the attempt to androgynise<br />
<strong>Christian</strong> manhood. In the ‘BBs’, the curriculum may be regarded as perceptibly<br />
gendered, with compulsory attendance at the weekday prayer meeting<br />
qualifying the boys to participate in the Saturday football and drilling activities.<br />
57 An act <strong>of</strong> (feminine) piety was required before admission to the<br />
(masculine) sport.<br />
Much discussion took place in the 1880s and 1890s on how to<br />
<strong>Christian</strong>ise men. Some churchmen felt that men had a specific problem<br />
about believing in miracles, but their approach <strong>of</strong> allowing Christ to be<br />
viewed as merely ‘a historical figure <strong>of</strong> the past whose lessons are fitted<br />
for our moral guidance’ was much criticised by others. 58 <strong>The</strong> essence <strong>of</strong><br />
the discourse on male religiosity was to problematise masculinity, and to<br />
divert men away from their ‘natural’ state. Encouraging militaristic and<br />
sporting activities was not a caving-in to this, but was an attempt to contain,<br />
capture, restrain and discipline masculinity. Muscular <strong>Christian</strong>ity was<br />
never unreservedly accepted in evangelical discourse on male piety because<br />
it was too closely associated with the sins <strong>of</strong> gambling, drinking and rough<br />
culture. Organisers <strong>of</strong> sport, especially commercial sport, became tarnished<br />
with the same brush as bookmakers and brewers. 59 From the evangelical<br />
standpoint, muscular <strong>Christian</strong>ity was no more than an experiment and not<br />
a fundamental change to a dominant negative discourse on male religiosity.<br />
THE PROBLEMATIC PIETY OF EVEN<br />
HOLY MEN<br />
This negative discourse was so powerful that it was the main theme in<br />
biographies <strong>of</strong> pious men. Exemplars <strong>of</strong> holy women abounded in religious<br />
literature between 1800 and 1950. Every woman, from humble cottage or<br />
workhouse to suburban mansion or aristocratic country house, was capable<br />
<strong>of</strong> being used to represent piety. Holy men, on the other hand, were in<br />
rather short supply. It was the clergyman, especially <strong>of</strong> the dissenting<br />
denominations, who came to dominate representations <strong>of</strong> the holy man,<br />
and his piety was represented as a constant problem.<br />
Clergy were prominent, popular and in some cases mobbed by admiring<br />
crowds. Some received huge amounts <strong>of</strong> mail from admirers. When R.W.<br />
Dale, the Congregationalist minister from Birmingham, left for a six-month<br />
trip overseas in 1887, he notified the public that letters would not be<br />
answered, and his return was the subject <strong>of</strong> great coverage in the religious<br />
press. 60 Thomas Chalmers recalled to a House <strong>of</strong> Commons select committee<br />
the popularity he had in his first urban charge in Glasgow in the<br />
98