From Apologia Report via pcanews.com
"Impious Europe" by Roger Scruton -- opens by reporting that an "enormous spiritual tension has begun to manifest itself in Europe. The presence here of large numbers of Muslim immigrants has brought home to ordinary citizens truths that have long been officially hidden: Religion is natural to human beings, and is also a means by which they define their social membership. Under the old Christian dispensation, membership and citizenship coincided; that was the purpose of national churches. Under the new dispensation, the two are growing apart, and the native population is beginning to sense its lack of spiritual identity in the face of religious communities that appear to defy its way of life. ...""Although doctrine has no place in our public life, a fear of heresy is beginning to grip the countries of Europe - not heresy as defined by the Christian churches, but heresy as defined by a form of post-Christian political correctness. A remarkable system of semiofficial labels has emerged with which to prevent the expression of dangerous points of view. A point of view is identified as dangerous if it belongs to the old Judeo-Christian culture and thereby reminds us of what we were when we actually believed something. Those who confess to their Christianity are 'Christian fundamentalists,' or even part of the 'Christian fundamentalist Right,' and therefore a recognized threat to free opinion. ... It is as though our society is seeking to define itself as a religious community whose very lack of faith has become a kind of orthodoxy."
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