Archbishop of York doesn't like consumerism...

In the good old days it used to stand that politics and religion stood hand in hand like the sort of buck-toothed and incestuous lovers that you might expect to find rubbing each other out in the backwaters of Henley or somewhere. Few would be surprised to witness a member of the clergy whispering sweet nothings into the ears of the country's leaders. Or a monk with his fingers around a royal pork pie. So perhaps it stands as a sign of the times, then, that the Arch Bishop of York has jumped on the media bandwagon and said a scathing word or two about the current Labour government and the terrible afflictions they have brought onto our society. Whatever happened to unity? Or social cohesion?

According to reports from today's newspapers, his Holiness, Dr Sentamu, unleashed a censorious attack on the government as he addressed Jewish leaders at a conference in London. His grievances mainly seemed to concern themselves with the idea that Labour's allowing of a 'rampant consumerism' to take control of the nation's moral values had proven to be detrimental to the fabric of society, and that, because of this, people no longer give a shit about one another:

“Unfortunately the impact of a rapacious consumerist appetite has led to the situation where seemingly unfettered rights and entitlements have come to the fore whilst responsibility has not simply gone out of fashion but seems to have fallen off the radar.

“The language of social justice may ring out in the phraseology of policy makers but it is a hollow call if at the same time our duties to one another, our responsibility to care for and look out for one another is lost.”

Naturally, his solution to this crisis of the soul came in the form of religion, of which he said society could once again, "rediscover the compassion and service", because, "Such petty-mindedness can be combated with the generosity of the divine".

The Archbishop's comments certainly seem to add some credence to the notion that spirituality is quickly becoming a popular topic in the realm of British politics. If you haven't noticed Tony Blair harking on about it recently then we can only assume you've been too busy out shopping for things that you don't really need.

Westmonster can agree with the notion of consumerism having gotten a little out of control in the UK. Every street corner seems to hold a supermarket, all anybody seems to do is watch product placement on the TV, and most people's free time is occupied with some kind of shopping excursion or by over-bloating their credit card balance with some crap that some magazine told them they need to invest in. It's quite sad really.

Perhaps the recent credit crunch shows that we've taken our love of consumption as far as we're prepared to. Whether or not this leads us all back to Church on a Sunday morning, though, is about as dubious as the notion of an honest politician. If nobody's noticed, secular's cool, baby. And that's the way we like it.

Photo: Flickr

Written by Oli Anderson on 5 Jun 2008 9:25 AM. Permalink