FATHER FRANK’S RANTS - Nadine, British Heroine

Rant Number 440 19 May 2011

Yes, MP Nadine Dorris. She is my heroine. Truly. Brave, brave, brave lady and legislator. She is a heroine because she has had the courage – some might call it the temerity - to propose a bill that is both right and fiercely counter-cultural. She wants schools to teach teenage girls abstinence. To say no to boys who want to sleep with them, no less. And, wonder of wonders, the bill has actually passed the first stage! It will go to a second reading in January.

Nadine the heroine is rightly worried about the high teenage pregnancy rate in this country. Her arguments are all about sexual safety and care of teenagers. She does not speak about virginity – not strictly her job – but the priest will. Because abstinence, chastity and virginity are like three holy sisters, they stand together, they are connected – they make sense – at least to a Christian.

Why not boys as well, you might ask? Sure. Boys too should learn abstinence. But let us face it, it is girls who carry the can. They get pregnant. They suffer the biggest burden. So, it is good feminist strategy to focus on the girls. Nadine is right.

Chastity is of course a virtuous habit which moderates the desire for libidinous pleasure. It is bound up with healthy self-discipline. (Mr Strauss-Khan, currently languishing in a New York clink, might regret he had not learnt to act in accordance with that virtue.) Chastity need not be permanent. Most human beings get married and that is right and good. Because holy Matrimony is a sacrament ‘signifying the mystical union that is betwixt Christ and his Church’, as the Anglican Prayer Book puts it.

However, the Bible also extols the excellence and value of the state of virginity. Jesus commends it to both men and women in St Matthew 19:12. St Paul praises in I Corinthians, 7:25 – the Apostle knew all about the tribulations of the flesh. And the Book of Revelation (14:4) points to those redeemed, blessed cohorts in Heaven who have kept their virginity and ‘follow the Lamb wherever he goes’. Goodly Fathers of the Church like St Ambrose lauded virginity’s value and symbolism. Objections against the state of virginity proceed mostly from impious, impure and wicked people and they should remember that God is not mocked...

Naturally, in our basically stupid and corrupt age whoever stands up for virtuous behaviour is made into a laughing-stock. No surprise then that Chris Bryant, MP, has attacked Nadine’s brave bill. I discover online she has called her proposal ‘daft’. Now, Ms Bryant was once ordained as an Anglican priest. I happen to have had the misfortune of sharing some of my priestly training with her. Yes, we were once together at Cuddesdon Theological College, near Oxford. She went on to run the Christian Socialist Movement, or something like that and now sits in the Commons. She would have had to renounce her priesthood to be elected, as clergy of the Established Church are not allowed to stand for Parliament. Ahem...Not a great loss to Holy Orders, pardon my uncharitableness. The point is that, unless Chris has also given up her faith, it is odd she does not support Nadine’s law. It is something a faithful, devout Christian person should do, surely. Instead, she mocks. May God forgive her – despite our former theoretical college fellowship, I must stand with Nadine against Christine. I can do other. (P.S. Forgive the spoof over your gender, Chris – I am sure you have a sense of humour!)

The real scandal, however, is the silence. Yes, the deafening silence emanating from the Church of England’s panjandrums. 26 bishops sit by right in the House of Lords. Allegedly, they are the Lords Spiritual. Spirituality and morality are their institutional job. You would have thought chastity is something they should take a professional interest in. Unless I am mistaken, I have not been able to discover that the bishops, often garrulous in irrelevant secular matters, have spoken in defence of Nadine Dorris’ brave bill. Why not?

The Archbishop of Canterbury is certainly a spiritual man – far more than I shall ever be, I admit it. He is not afraid of making eccentric pronouncements, from praise of Islamic law to expressing reservations over Bin Laden’s killing. Fair enough. But why does he lack the courage to back a law requiring the teaching of sexual abstinence to girls in schools? He cannot be unaware of the traditions of the Church. He knows Holy Scripture better than I do. He must know the bill stands in line with what Christianity teaches. Why is he silent?

The General Synod of the C of E would be silent too, I bet. It does not surprise me. Way back, during a debate, when a faithful member said something in favour of chastity, the Synod ‘laughed’. Yes, they did. It was truly Satan’s laughter. Maybe I am taking the idiots too seriously but...Here goes one of my tropes. About the greatest sin of the Anglican Church: that its counterfeit religion has made it hard for good people to tell true from false Christianity.

‘To be honest, who cares for what the Church teaches?’ a young friend of mine commented the other day on Facebook. He was right. The secular world today is largely heedless of the Truth. But it is a bad argument. Who cared for Moses? The faithless Israelites in the desert constantly rebelled, sought to return to the fleshpots of Egypt and even ended up worshipping the Golden Calf. Who cared for the wisdom of Socrates, the most righteous man in the ancient world? The people of Athens sentenced him to death for teaching it is worse to do wrong than to suffer wrong. Who cared for Jesus Christ? They reviled him, spat on him and nailed to a Cross. Who cared for the saints, the martyrs? The Letter to the Hebrews tells how they suffered cruel mockings and scourgings; how they were stoned, sawn asunder, slain with the sword; how many were destitute, afflicted, tormented...Their persecutors certainly cared not a jot what the saints taught and yet, and yet...Their timeless example speaks to us, stranded in a spiritual and moral desert, far louder than all the cacophonies of the wicked.

Nadine Dorris’ bill may not make it through the second reading but...Look, I am Christian – I believe in miracles!