¹²’Honour your father and your mother…..’

Exodus 20: 12a – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

⁹That which has been is what will be and that which is done is what will be done and there is nothing new under the sun. ¹⁰Is there anything of which you might say, ‘Look, this is new’? It has already been, throughout the eons that were before us.

Ecclesiastes 1: 9 – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

⁹Remember all that happened long ago, for I am God, and there is none other; I am God and there is no one like me. ¹⁰From the beginning I reveal the end, from ancient times what is yet to be;…

Isaiah 46: 9-10a – The Revised English Bible

⁷Remember the days of old; consider the years of many generations; ask your father and he will show you, your elders and they will tell you.

Deuteronomy 32: 7 – The Keys of the Kingdom Holy Bible

⁹But take care: keep careful watch on yourselves so that you do not forget the things that you have seen with your own eyes; do not let them pass from your minds as long as you live, but teach them to your children and to your children’s children.

Deuteronomy 4: 9 – The Revised English Bible

For some months, I’ve been planning to write a blog about the way our history is being manipulated and rejected, but I’ve been beaten to it by the publication of Frank Furedi’s book: The War against the Past: Why the West Must Fight for its History. I haven’t yet read this book, but I have heard him speak about it, and he seems to cover many of the points that I wanted to make.

It might, however, be good to start with a reaction to the book by Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, a journalist who came to this country from Uganda when she was 23. She has said this:

“…patriotic pride, to me, is meaningless, vacuous, oppressive and dangerous. It can incite wars and social rifts and does no one any good. I appreciate that some readers carry that love of country in their hearts. I don’t. I can’t.”

She goes on to say that our national story was based on ‘fake histories’ and that the rejection of British history by the current generation ‘bodes well for our collective future.’

But does she really have no love for the country that took her in, when she was escaping persecution in Idi Amin’s Uganda? Not even a teensy bit? And does it really bode well for our collective future? (emphasis mine). In her article, she admits that there is still a majority of the population who were born here who do feel proud of our history, but she then points out that most of those who arrived here after their birth do not. So how can it possibly bode well for our collective future for us to be thus divided?

I’ve lived with the Bible for the whole of my life, but I only started studying it seriously in 2007, at the age of 56. I realised, of course, that the Christian world was divided by its interpretation. But one of the earliest lessons that I learned (and I literally thank God for this) is that you cannot and must not try to judge what was written 4,000 years ago by how we view things now; that is simply an appalling abuse of a set of books that have provided our founding culture. This is such a basic error, that I feel it adds to my conclusion that historians in future will regard this period in history as:

‘The Age of Unreason’

I’ve chosen this echo of the period in our history known as ‘The Enlightenment’ or ‘The Age of Reason’ because it often seems to me that we’ve collectively lost all common sense and all judgement. And for good measure we’ve added a huge dose of arrogance. How else do you describe a generation that considers that it, uniquely through all history, is omniscient and beyond criticism and all other generations are to be rejected as nothing more than uncivilised barbarians?

I need to make it clear that I’m not suggesting that every previous generation got everything right and every decision they made was perfect. That would be utterly ridiculous. But it would be equally ridiculous to suggest that we now have the sole and lasting right to claim that we, and only we, have all the answers.

Those who’ve gone before are, no less than we are, creatures of the cultures in which they lived their lives. A couple of examples might help:

• In biblical times and before anatomy was fully understood, society generally accepted that women were ‘incomplete men.’ They were treated accordingly. Now that we have a better understanding of anatomy, we quite correctly reject that understanding.
• It’s shocking to realise that it was thought that the best way to treat illness was through bleeding, often with leeches, until almost the end of the 19^th century; in our history a mere blink of an eye ago. No one in their right mind would suggest this now. So, we’ve managed to move on. But can we claim to understand now all there is to be known about our bodies? The last four years has demonstrated that the answer to this is a very definite ‘no’.

I’ve written on this blog about ‘Carbon Mike’ and his Foundationist ideas. His 8^th ‘precept’ is: ‘Respect Tradition’. You can hear a short discussion about that, with my friend Danny Doran on his ‘Infinite Jigsaw’ podcast here:

The point that Carbon Mike makes in that interview is that not all traditions should be continued and some quite clearly (like the two above) should be abandoned. But he argues passionately for a respect for tradition, as opposed to an ‘adherence’ to tradition or an ‘upholding’ of tradition. Respect, he explains, demands that the abandoning of tradition should only be done after much thought and care, and he gives the analogy of removing part of the structure of a building without first considering whether it could result in its destruction. He maintains that without tradition, society itself could be destroyed, in a very similar way. He goes on to say that only faith and religion and their associated values can teach us how to decide which traditions should be maintained and which abandoned. In other words, that is yet another casualty of the conscious attempt in recent years to abandon God and our Christian values.

And he makes the following reference to what GK Chesterton said about this subject:

“Tradition is only democracy extended through time. It is trusting to a consensus of common human voices rather than to some isolated or arbitrary record… Tradition means giving votes to the most obscure of all classes, our ancestors. It is the democracy of the dead. Tradition refuses to submit to the small and arrogant oligarchy of those who merely happen to be walking about. All democrats object to men being disqualified by the accident of birth; tradition objects to their being disqualified by the accident of death. Democracy tells us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our groom [butler]; tradition asks us not to neglect a good man’s opinion, even if he is our father.” (GK Chesterton, Orthodoxy)

So, the answer must be to respect tradition and learn from history. Yasmin Alibhai-Brown is a representative of those who would wish to reject all tradition and obliterate our shared history. The answer perhaps lies in the fact that, as I’ve often said in this blog, we owe it to others to see them as God’s much-loved creatures, whether they are living or dead and whether we agree with them or not. Our ancestors, allowing for the fact that they were brought up as they were and did not have a full understanding of some of the things that we now know, did their best; or at least 99% of them did and we owe them respect for that.

And as for history, as distinct from tradition, we should resist it being changed or obliterated with all our might. For once it’s gone, it’s gone for eternity and we’ve consciously cut ourselves off from the learning (including the mistakes) of all previous generations. It doesn’t bear contemplation.

That way, we would all simply become victims of our own prejudices and particularly the prejudices of those with more power and might than ourselves. I can’t think of a worse fate. Yet that is what some of those who wish to influence us, actively want to happen. Why? Because the obliteration of our shared experience, history and learning would leave us in a position where those with bad motives would find it much easier to manipulate us.

Gracious, loving and merciful Father, we are who we are, not least because those who’ve gone before us have self-sacrificially given of themselves, in order to help us and future generations. We owe them respect and the humility to accept that had a knowledge that was as valuable as ours. And help us to avoid slipping into the terrible error and arrogance of thinking that we know more than all who’ve gone before. Amen