Godless Vicars?

It is 30 years since the classic British situational comedy “Yes Minister” first aired. This much loved show ran for 3 seasons of 7 episodes followed by the sequel, “Yes, Prime Minister” between 1986-88. One of my favourite episodes was “Bishop’s Gambit” in which the now Prime Minister Jim Hacker had to choose one of the candidates put up by the Crown Appointments Commission for a vacant Bishopric in the Church of England. This episode parodies the realities of our state church which to this day is split between conservative evangelicals and catholics who are very religious in the sense usually understood, with conservative views on abortion, euthanasia, drug use, gay rights, etc, and who take the Bible and orthodox Christianity very seriously, and on the other hand liberal, left of centre, “modernists” who seem to come rather close to being atheists. It was often said that this was Margaret Thatcher’s favourite TV show and it was around this time in the 1980s that she vetoed the appointment of James Lawton Thompson as Bishop of Birmingham for his liberal or leftish views. Also around the time of “Yes, Prime Minister”, David Jenkins controversially became the Bishop of Durham and was hounded for his alleged disbelief if not for his left wing political views. Around this time I was a confirmed member of the Church of England and I could perhaps have cynically stayed the course as a non-believing Anglican as some others seem to have done. However, I would have found it impossible to square my own views with what I know to be the faith once delivered to the saints. I am a believer of sorts, just not in Christianity (or at least what I take to be Christianity) and so I have chosen to pursue what I perceive to be the right path, that of Humanism.