tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184338388412694681.post8846710763795282528..comments2023-12-04T23:00:36.715+00:00Comments on Peter Mullins' Blog: ForgivenessPeter Mullinshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07970212201798943640noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184338388412694681.post-75319504196422933302013-02-13T19:46:06.126+00:002013-02-13T19:46:06.126+00:00Thanks Rod.
I'm sure that the reasons for goin...Thanks Rod.<br />I'm sure that the reasons for going to church or not either regularly or for special events are very complex. At the moment I over use the image 'you can't unbake a cake' - there is butter, flour and sugar in there but you can't point any of them out in isolation once the cake is made. So, yes, ingredients include social custom, belief in God, expectation of your peers, changing patterns of Sunday football and shopping, habit, the experience of prayer, where people find community, a vague spiritual sense and many more things; these are all baked together when someone thinks things like ‘I’ll go along today’ or ‘I’ll have my child baptised’. One example: Mass attendance in Poland halved after Communism ended – commitment to the Catholic faith probably didn’t change much at all but the need to express national non-Communist identity obviously did.<br />All I was then reporting about those who touch church activity fleetingly was the unexpected discovery that (although for two-thirds of them the discrepancy you identify is so wide that they don’t have any expectation that the church will be the source of insight for them about everything from euthanasia to gay marriage) two-thirds of them think we might have something helpful to say about forgiveness. Yes, this is unlike the call for vengeance which you hear a lot and which I read in comments on media stories all the time, but there it is. From Archbishop Tutu’s pioneering work with ‘truth and reconciliation’ in South Africa to the low grade reminders in wedding preparation sessions about the healing nature of mutual forgiveness within marriage, many of them seem to suspect we are onto something.Peter Mullinshttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07970212201798943640noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5184338388412694681.post-17935667041335995692013-02-12T22:10:52.733+00:002013-02-12T22:10:52.733+00:00I wonder about the 'Social Aspect' of goin...I wonder about the 'Social Aspect' of going to church.<br />When somebody has a baby everybody asks about the christening - how many today would bother if they didn't think it was the 'done thing'<br />That may explain why many people go for the 'occasions' but not on Sunday.<br /><br />The other social aspect I wonder about is how many people used to go to church on a Sunday because it was a social event - in their eyes?<br />Especially in smaller towns and villages it would have been the only opportunity to socialize for many.<br />So, with the greatest of respect, I wonder whether years ago many people went to church without necessarily believing in God, per se ?<br /><br />To that end, nowadays people have more social opportunities in terms of communication etc, we're doing one of those now, perhaps that explains why some people are not there on Sunday.<br />The average man on the street doesn't want to forgive, he wants vengeance, not justice, certainly not forgiveness.<br />It's too easy to over-estimate what the man on the Clapham omnibus cares about, only intellectuals and those in the Westminster Bubble care about much that we see in the media.<br /><br />I rarely hear people talk about forgiveness, usually hanging or severe punishment, nor do I hear about Christianity (only Islam) all I hear about is the cost of petrol and domestic bills, plus a load of TV or celebrity drivel - times have changed massively, so have many people, the church has changed little so I believe that leads to a big discrepancy when it comes to alignment between the church and those who don't attend.<br /><br />Thanks for a great blog post, very thought provoking<br />Regards,<br />Rod CollinsRod Collinsnoreply@blogger.com