I’ve mentioned from time to time how the advent of social media has as good as killed the readers’ letters pages of local newspapers, at least so far as anything truly interesting or provocative is concerned.
Something else that you rarely if ever see in the media nowadays is stories developed from church magazines.
A few decades ago, in my earlier life as a newspaper reporter, such publications were an unlikely but often good source of stories, especially when vicars got hot under their dog collars (sorry, couldn’t resist that one!).
And they did go public with views that were occasionally quite outspoken and even controversial.
With a stretch of the imagination, I can just about see the sort of cleric I have in mind perhaps having a field day today as a regular contributor to Facebook or X.
At times, back in the day, it almost seemed as though there was competition among them to see who could come up with the most newsworthy comments.
Examples I have highlighted in the past have included the Rector of Falmouth in 1984, the Rev Preb Peter Boyd, who caused quite a stir with his call for Britain to surrender its nuclear arsenal.
His predecessor, Canon Tom Barfett, raised many an eyebrow when he advocated Government censorship of the media, no less.
He wrote: “Any government that wants peace will have to exert censorship over the media . . . A policy of self-restraint by the media would be of tremendous help to the nation at this difficult time.”
Now I am reminded of the “roaring rev” over at Falmouth’s St Michael’s Church, Penwerris, in the early 1970s, when the Rev Harry Hodgetts felt moved to describe our nation as being “in a hell of a mess.”
He wrote: “One of the most regrettable and stupid statements of recent times was made by a former minister of the crown who said that the permissive society is the civilized society. How’s that for a laugh?”
He argued that indifference to God, the rejection of meaningful standards to live by and “the innate selfishness of the affluent society” was inevitably bringing an unhappy, dissatisfied and disillusioned society.
He added: “Meanwhile, morals decline and man, proud-come-of-age man, sinks below a truly human level.”
Mr Hodgetts blasted the indifference of the silent majority “who sit in their comfy cocoons of affluent bliss and allow evil people to have their own way in the life of this nation.”
He pondered whether people cared that some cinemas and “reputable” bookshops made money out of “selling filth and distorting young minds.”
He was also deeply disturbed to note that vandalism in his parish was getting much worse, with senseless damage and anti-social behaviour causing untold distress for countless people.
He wrote: “When people talk of moving away because of constant interference from hooligans, it’s time society woke up to an acceptance of responsibilities to match the acceptance of benefits demanded and received.”
His comments were reported in the Falmouth Packet, which added its own view: “Altogether, it’s a gloomy picture that has been painted of life in the 1970s and one that frequently emerges.”
No comments:
Post a Comment