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 />
the liberalisation <strong>of</strong> British society: to legalisation <strong>of</strong> abortion in 1967<br />
(which it did not wholly oppose), to decriminalisation <strong>of</strong> homosexuality in<br />
1968 (a ‘distasteful’ group <strong>of</strong> people who were ‘sick, and who are in need<br />
<strong>of</strong> a physician, even although as yet no complete cure has been found’),<br />
and the liberalisation <strong>of</strong> divorce (which it approved subject to the promotion<br />
<strong>of</strong> ‘Engaged Couples’ courses). By 1970 it was quite optimistic,<br />
admiring young people’s principled opposition to the Biafran and Vietnam<br />
wars, and finding virtue even in sexual permissiveness: ‘If the sanctions <strong>of</strong><br />
commandment and convention are gone, people are set free to respond to<br />
goodness for its own sake, under no compulsion, constrained and sustained<br />
by the love <strong>of</strong> Christ and not by the fear <strong>of</strong> a lost respectability.’ <strong>The</strong><br />
Committee considered whether marriage might be on the way out, and felt<br />
this was not without historical precedent. ‘<strong>The</strong> spirit <strong>of</strong> the age with its<br />
new found freedoms, and its healthy intolerance <strong>of</strong> humbug and hypocrisy,<br />
challenges <strong>Christian</strong>s to re-think the implications <strong>of</strong> <strong>Christian</strong> morality –<br />
not a bad thing to have to do.’ But then, in a single sentence <strong>of</strong> its report<br />
in 1970, the Committee grasped the central issue: ‘It is the promiscuous<br />
girl who is the real problem here.’ In this utterly sexist statement, the<br />
Committee actually understood the central issue – that the ‘moral turn’<br />
in female sexuality destroyed the entire house <strong>of</strong> cards. Boys had always<br />
been boys, but female permissiveness meant that a generation <strong>of</strong> young<br />
women were turning their back on the discourse <strong>of</strong> pious femininity. With<br />
this realisation, the Committee could not cope, and by 1972 it voiced total<br />
exasperation with ‘the turbulent continent <strong>of</strong> morality’ and the unfolding<br />
‘promiscuous age’. 47<br />
Many <strong>Christian</strong> congregations in <strong>Britain</strong> tried to compromise with the<br />
new age <strong>of</strong> youth in the late 1960s, developing new forms <strong>of</strong> religious<br />
worship using guitars and penny whistles, modern dress and a ‘happyclappy’<br />
atmosphere in an attempt to mimic the forms <strong>of</strong> youth culture.<br />
Churches continued to try to absorb rock bands and the new-fangled discotheques<br />
within their premises. In Edinburgh, large numbers <strong>of</strong> fourteen- to<br />
seventeen-year-olds (including the author) were members <strong>of</strong> a considerable<br />
‘church-hall’ circuit <strong>of</strong> rock dances and discos, but this had largely collapsed<br />
by 1970 as it was shut down by congregations unable to countenance the<br />
increasing loudness <strong>of</strong> the music, the arrival <strong>of</strong> s<strong>of</strong>t drugs, the visits <strong>of</strong> the<br />
police and, above all, the brazen nature <strong>of</strong> teenagers’ casual sexual liaisons.<br />
A hundred and ninety years after Sunday schools first opened, the salvation<br />
industry was shutting its doors to an entire generation <strong>of</strong> youngsters who<br />
no longer subscribed to religious discourses <strong>of</strong> moral identity. Secularisation<br />
was now well under way.<br />
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