If you read the comments after online articles for The Guardian on the subject of religion, you might be struck by the venom and spite poured out on all things religious. Coming in for particular ire is the Catholic Church, not only for it’s appalling record on child sexual abuse, but also for it’s doctrine and rituals. Maybe the majority of correspondents have axes to grind, and many may well have had bad experiences of religion in their younger lives. Why does God get such a bad press?
Why do people so hate You Lord?
And why do they revile Your Church?
Are they just bad-minded so and so’s,
Who like to tear down and besmirch?
Should we then, from our holy heights,
Treat them with the contempt deserved?
Or is there something in their criticism,
That godly types need to take on board?
Many today scoff at the thought of You,
Holding that the unseen is in fact unreal.
Factual evidence is their sacred mantra;
Faith in You, a debunked medieval deal.
As we now orbit round the sun, so too
The star of science is, rightly, centred,
But there is no place in Your universe
For You… as Disney has now averred.
Your Church’s sins are many and heinous.
What use is salt when it’s lost its taste?
Did You miscalculate Christian witness?
Is Your trust in us somewhat misplaced?
If unbelieving folk laugh at the ‘sky fairy’,
And suggest that You probably don’t exist,
They’ve never had a sense of Your heart,
And know not what they’ve never missed.
All humanity will bend the knee, and
Gladly so, when they see Your majesty,
But who will rue the dearth of faith:
The blind, or those who claim to see?