A Scottish bishop has said that his 90-year-old father is so bewildered by cultural change that he’s glad to be on his “way out”.
In an address to the Scottish Parliament last week Bishop Stephen Robson of Dunkeld spoke of his father reaching his 10th decade. He said: “He has been badly traumatised by many of the developments in the world around him. Like so many of the elderly, he is ill at ease with modernity; he has had enough of drastic change in his life. So sadly, on his 90th birthday, he said to me: ‘Son, I’m glad to be on the way out.’
“But it wasn’t terrorist violence or the threats of war that caused him to feel like this, but rather the endless cultural changes in contemporary society. It brought home to me that my father, and countless others like him, are in culture shock.”
Describing how in sociology culture shock is the disorientation people feel at the clash of world views, he continued: “In the last decade, cultural change has arguably been Scottish society’s greatest challenge. And it is not so much social changes as such that are the problem, as rather the increased pace of those changes – which have left many people, and not only the elderly, straggling behind. The result is cultural disorientation.”
He added that globalisation meant that “all the world’s social challenges and cultural problems appear as if they are sprouting in our own backyard. We just can’t tackle them all at once; we need time to absorb change, if culture shock is to be avoided.”
Bishop Robson was delivering the Time of Reflection address at the Scottish Parliament. Each week a speaker addresses MSPs on a subject of faith, and the bishop was using his speech to ask lawmakers to “be compassionate about the effects of change” because many, including the elderly, find it difficult to keep up.
He added: “Not everyone can absorb it at the same rate. There will always be the wayfarers, the stragglers and the reluctant and the downright stubborn: win minds and hearts first rather than coerce by force of law.”
Catholic MPs back Bill to ensure pupils don’t go hungry
Numerous Catholic MPs have backed a Bill that aims to “end term-time hunger” for schoolchildren. The Bill, tabled by Anglican Labour MP Frank Field, would place a duty on local councils to automatically register pupils eligible for free meals. Some estimates put the number of poor children in England entitled to but not receiving free meals at 160,000.
Among the Catholic MPs backing the Bill are Conservatives Edward Leigh, Fiona Bruce and David Amess, and Labour MPs Jon Cruddas, Gisela Stuart and Mary Creagh.
The Bill was due to be heard in the Commons last week, and comes after a report published earlier in the month by the all-party group on hunger, which Mr Field chairs.
Dr Philip McCarthy, chief executive officer of Catholic Social Action Network (CSAN), said: “It is a sad reality that one year on from Feeding Britain’s initial report into hunger and food poverty, we are little closer to tackling these problems. Children are still waking up hungry and still going to school hungry.” Mr Field’s Bill would make some authorities use housing benefit records to identify families with children eligible for free meals.
Cardinal: UK is ‘bereft of God’
Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor has said he feels “very sad” that Britain seems so “bereft” of God. The cardinal, giving his “Pause for Reflection” on BBC Radio 2’s The Chris Evans Show, quoted the novelist Julian Barnes saying: “I don’t believe in God but I miss Him”. The cardinal said: “How people miss God. He is there for you even though you may not have experienced Him or perhaps have ignored Him or even abandoned Him.”
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