“When men choose not to believe in God, they do not thereafter believe in nothing, they then become capable of believing in anything.” —G. K. Chesterton

“What else does this craving, and this helplessness, proclaim but that there was once in man a true happiness, of which all that now remains is the empty print and trace? This he tries in vain to fill with everything around him, seeking in things that are not there the help he cannot find in those that are, though none can help, since this infinite abyss can be filled only with an infinite and immutable object; in other words by God himself.” —Blaise Pascal, Pensées VII(425)

The point of the above two quotations is that humans are hard-wired to believe in something that will give life meaning. What happens, though, when a faith no longer believes in itself? That’s something that’s playing out in England, and I’m sure that the answer to the question will be “nothing good.”

For almost four millennia, the Judeo-Christian faith has filled the God-shaped hole, first among the Jews and then, via Christ’s ministry, among the world’s Christians. More than anything, this belief system, especially the Christian part, which is centered around Christ as the Messiah, has created the modern world. And while leftists love to point to the Christian side of the Crusades and various religious wars, they forget that it was Christians who drove respect for women, the abolition of slavery, and the end of child labor, none of which exist in the Muslim world.

Christians, especially those in the world that Great Britain created, accomplished these wonders. They changed the world as it has existed since the dawn of man because they believed that their one true God made these societal changes a religious imperative. This Enlightened Christianity, which abandoned the imperative to kill non-believers, is one of the greatest things ever to have happened to humankind.

Image: Canterbury Cathedral (edited) by Diliff. CC BY 3.0.

Many of these changes were painful, requiring great personal sacrifice. In America, approximately 360,000 Union soldiers died to end slavery, an abomination that denies the fact that we are all children of God and that violates the Eighth Commandment’s mandate not to steal—for what theft can be greater than stealing someone’s liberty?

People did these things because they believed. They’d filled their “God-shaped holes” with something that imposed upon them incredibly high moral standards. For them, Christianity wasn’t just Sunday services and moral preening. It was about the obligations of the one true faith.

But in Birmingham, England, the Church of England’s (“CofE”) leaders no longer believe that theirs is the one true faith:

Bishops within the Church of England have raised concerns that certain Christmas carols might be “problematic” because of their explicit references to Jesus as the “true Messiah.” The Birmingham Diocese recently communicated to its clergy the need to reassess the language used in hymns to create an “inclusive” environment during the festive season.

The Birmingham Diocese instructed clergy to “use language that won’t add further confusion or tension or take away anything from the good news of the Nativity,” The Mail on Sunday reported, citing the email.

The hymns under scrutiny include “Lo, He Comes With Clouds Descending,” a favorite of Queen Victoria, which has been criticized for declaring Jesus as the “true Messiah.”

I’m Jewish, so I don’t believe that Jesus was the Messiah, although I believe that he was a great and good man whose teaching made the world a better place. Indeed, I try to live my life in accordance with the principles he espoused.

What’s so shocking is that Church leaders are basically taking the same line I take about Jesus—a good man and all that, but please don’t say he’s the Messiah! That’s just so wrong. If you’re a member of a faith, you’d better damn well believe in it, and I use the word “damn” on purpose because damnation waits for those who get it wrong. (And yes, I accept the risk that comes from my clinging to my beliefs.)

Somehow, these CofE leaders have gone beyond the Enlightenment notion that you should believe absolutely in your faith, but you shouldn’t kill those who don’t, to a whole new idea, which is that you shouldn’t believe in your faith at all. Being a CofE leader is now a 9-5 job, like being a meter maid. They’re caretakers of carefully cleansed traditions of their religion rather than believers and evangelists.

And I’m sure it’s totally not a coincidence that Islam is the second-largest religion in England, that Birmingham’s population is almost 30% Muslim, and that the Birmingham CofE’s new view of Christ aligns with the Muslim view of Christ. I also bet that these weak-kneed CofE officials in Birmingham know full well that after a Muslim population reaches 20%, “nations can expect hair-trigger rioting, jihad militia formations, sporadic killings, and the burnings of Christian churches and Jewish synagogues.” When it reaches 30%, “nations experience widespread massacres, chronic terror attacks, and ongoing militia warfare.”

The Church of England’s founders would never have allowed themselves to be overwhelmed this way, and once they realized what was happening, they would have thrown themselves into the breach. Their descendants are made of lesser stuff.