We’ve got it all wrong. Many of us seem to be so intent on proving our non-racism that we’ve eroded all of our beliefs and cultural practices so as not to offend anyone, something that no one ever asked us to do btw. The practices we’ve given up were never the things that offended people. We've lost our centre of spirituality amid a climate of secularism and political correctness without addressing the problems within society that really do offend people of faith, myself included: alcoholism, violence, promiscuity, rising abortion rates and teenage pregnancy…In Leeds now on a Friday/Saturday night the council actually have to wheel out portable outdoor urinals to try and stop drunk men peeing up against the walls of shops. I do not want to see this (either men peeing against walls OR into outdoor urinals) when I’m walking about the city centre. Last year, abortion rates peaked in the early new-year, linked to festive binge drinking.
The other half of us believe absolutely that we’ve got it right, our religion is THE right one and as one church member said to me today…we aren’t interested in getting to know non-believers…
Maybe it just means that my own faith is weak, but how can anyone dismiss so many other peoples belief systems? Especially when you look back at the history of the Christian church and realise that for a long time we couldn’t even agree on what we believed! I’m annoyed because of the call I took from the above church member whose church isn’t interested in even learning about the faith of other people, never mind actually interacting with them. Can you imagine what the reaction would be if an Imam said that to some tabloid journalist, sorry, we’re just not interested in non-believers….or if I, next time a church calls me tell them I can’t help their organisation as they believe that Jesus is the son of God or God incarnate, rather than a man and a prophet as I believe.

Maybe I’m wrong, maybe we should all just live in our own separate enclaves never interacting with each other, not bothering to try and reach any kind of understanding. Maybe we in the UK just aren’t civilised enough.