God, man, & Mrs Thatcher

God, man, & Mrs Thatcher | Jonathan Raban

In the late '80s, Margaret Thatcher was beset by “turbulent priests“ who *would* insist that Christian values included Charity, which meant looking after the disadvantaged, you know, like Jesus did. Maggie wasn't having any of it! So, she took herself off to deepest Scotland, at that time a nation which was utterly opposed to her government, to address the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, a message delivered there, but intended for ⬇

Bookwomble the Archbishops 'back home'. Presuming to give a lesson in theology to her reverend audience, she told them in no uncertain terms that the Church has no business dabbling in 'society', which in any case doesn't really exist, that she had found a loophole in Christ's injunction to love others as you love yourself, & that the business of the clergy was with the souls of the dead, not the conditions of the living. It didn't play well to the 👇🏼 5y

Bookwomble Scots, but went down a storm in the Tory heartlands, most of whom would identify as followers of Jesus Christ, the humble man who fed the hungry and cared for the sick. Turning from this contemporary dissection of her speech to today, I can only wonder at the sight of so many professed people of faith who support leaders embodying the exact antithesis of the moral creed upon which they claim to build their lives and their salvation. 5y

saresmoore I‘ve stopped admitting my religious affiliation for this very reason. Hypocrisy and ignorance abound! I have the feeling Jesus would extend love and grace to these misguided numbskulls, but I don‘t think he‘d put up with their shit. 5y

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saresmoore As to Margaret Thatcher, what little I do know about her leadership and her politics mostly confuses me. 5y

Bookwomble @saresmoore I'm sad that you feel unable to declare your faith. Although I'm an atheist myself, I respect the right of others to their beliefs as long as they don't cause harm, and of course, in line with the Golden Rule, I must hold myself to that standard, too. I hope you have a space in which to express yourself with joy 😊 💝 5y

Bookwomble @saresmoore As to Thatcher, she and Reagan were cast from essentially the same mold, if that helps you. They both introduced a hard-line neo-liberal agenda to their countries, that we are still being damaged by. Thatcher introduced legislation to restrict the rights of LGBT people, was anti-union, anti-immigrant, anti-Europe, started dismantling our healthcare system, sold off public utilities, gave tax breaks to the rich, etc. Sound familiar? 🙄 5y

Bookwomble @saresmoore Also, what is it with demogogues and big hair? 5y

Emilymdxn Thatcher‘s face makes me feel ill 🤢 I hadn‘t heard this about her and religion specifically but ugh of course she did. Incredible how her policies and the things she set in motion are still killing people to this day and there‘s still more awful things to find out about her. (edited) 5y

Aimeesue Ewwww. Who argues with Jesus? These "Greed is Good" people are terrible human beings who do a great job of conning themselves that they're not. (edited) 5y

Bookwomble @Emilymdxn She said in a 1978 interview with the Catholic Herald: “Nowadays there really is no primary poverty left in this country. In Western countries we are left with the problems which aren't poverty. All right, there may be poverty because people don't know how to budget, don't know how to spend their earnings, but now you are left with the really hard fundamental character—personality defect.“
The poor are poor because they are defective! 5y

Bookwomble @Aimeesue I'm positive she felt herself to act absolutely in accordance with Jesus's ethics and morals. Her reasoning about the Golden Rules is that if we are asked to love others as we love ourselves, well, when we do bad things we don't love ourselves, so we don't have to love anybody else if they are bad. Who decides what “bad“is? Step up, Maggie Thatcher! 👏 👏 🙄 5y

Aimeesue @Bookwomble Maggie May have fooled herself with that neoliberal Social Darwinian nonsense, but she's not fooling me! Quite frankly, they all disgust me. 5y

saresmoore Ugh, yes. That‘s all too familiar and deeply upsetting. And it‘s true about the hair! 😂 Even my angry, bigoted in-laws have big fluffy hairstyles. It‘s like they‘re trying to hide how much that baseless hatred has diminished the size of their brains. 5y

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