Sunday 13 November 2011

The Saintly Sixties?

The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge are to move into the legendary Apartment 1A, Kensington Palace, in fact a very large house. That was where Princess Margaret kept the most swinging salon in all of Swinging London.

Princess Margaret, who all her life was uncommonly devout even by the standards of senior members of the Royal Family. Not everyone would have agreed with her about that. But no one thought that it, any more than her royal status, prevented her from being at the very heart of Zeitgeist.

Any more than anyone thought that of Sir Jimmy Savile, with his daily prayer, his weekly Mass, his monthly Confession (he told all of this entirely frankly to any interviewer who asked), his Papal Knighthood and his Knighthood of Malta.

No one would think that in America even now. Or in Canada, if young Bieber, a very proud Canadian, is anything to go by. Or in many Continental countries, either. But what, exactly, happened here? When, exactly? How, exactly? And why, exactly?

4 comments:

  1. LOL. I knew you would get round to Sir Jimmy in the end.

    I think it is the quiet, piecemeal rejection of faith that is perhaps the most pleasing aspect of the fall of the church in British society. The children of church-going families who just grin & bear it until they leave home, only to spend their weekends elsewhere.

    During the 80's & 90's congregations were young enough to handle this. Now the old grey hairs are looking round only to find that the few younger people are ex-druggies, immigrants, homosexuals or families trying to gt their kids into an OFSTED approved church school. There ain't nothing like a few pushy parents with bored kids in tow to make a mockery of proceedings is there?

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  2. Politicians are still expected to go through the motions of religion, no matter how secular the country is and no matter what their real beliefs. Especially today.

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  3. I don't know what you mean by that.

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