Well, if the Bolsheviks could do it while in a minority...

The legal proposal to remove the Christian ceremonial from the Coronation when the proto-regency ends and Charles becomes king in his own right is another step to push expression of religion underground.  The National Secular Society, launching the action, claims that when only 2% of the population regularly attend church on a Sunday, it is offensive to everyone else to have a Christian Coronation, even if the monarch and her heirs are quite happy to continue the practice themselves.

This is all cant of course, from a group that always appears on the news as moaning minnies.  It is stretching the boundaries beyond the realm of truth to say that 98% of the population desire a secular ceremony for the crowning of the future king (for that is what it will be for at least the next three generations).  It is already been ruled by a High Court judge that Sunday church attendance is not the definition of what it is to be a Christian, thereby sweeping the claims of the NSS from under their feet before their lawsuit has even begun.  There are many who identify with being a Christian beyond those actually popping along on a Sunday to a formal church building.  Even an Honorary Associate of the NSS, David Starkey, calls himself an ‘Anglican’, for the cultural connotations it contains, including religious roots.  Interesting that he is an Honorary Associate, as if he doesn’t want to pay the membership fee.

This brings the debate to numbers.  2% sounds a very small number by turn it into hard numbers and it becomes more impressive.  A million people take Holy Communion on a regular basis, the origin of the NSS’s 2% figure – this does not include all those who go to church but are not confirmed, who are children or simply those who do not wish to receive Communion.  Contrast that with the agitators at the NSS, who number 10,000 individuals in their organisation.  So it is pretty rich to complain about Christianity representing a role in public life for 2% of the population, when your own grouping accounts for 0.02% (or accurately 0.0163%) of the United Kingdom.

Moreover, it is only a fraction of atheists at large who kick up a fuss.  The vast majority do not have such obsession, continuing their lives with out such agitprop behaviour to define themselves.  And other faith groups are happy for Christianity to play its historical role in this country.  The only people who object are Islamic extremists who want to end the House of Windsor anyway.  These are the bedfellows the NSS keeps but it seems strangely appropriate, in their abuse of the Human Right Act.