Christ the King  - 22 November, 2003.

Luke Geoghegan

About three weeks ago I was listening to Pick of the Week on Radio 4. The excerpt I was listening to had an academic who was predicting the death of religion. In fact, so confident was he of his statistics and predictions he projected, for example, the extinction of Methodism by 2034. 

The extraordinary thing is the number of people - who should know better - who buy into this rot. There's obviously a huge amount of people who have been going around with their head in a bag for the last forty years. Let's look at the facts.

. Islam is on the march. Ten years ago I visited Turkey. What struck me was how many mosques were being constructed. OK, we all know that people in Al-Queda are bonkers but they are influenced by religion no matter how perverted it is.

. In Neasden in north west London the first traditional Hindu temple has been constructed out of white marble in over 600 years. And a very beautiful building it is too. The attached meeting halls are one of the largest unsupported spaces in London. This particular branch of Hindusim is building such temples all over the world.

. Much of the USA's domestic and foreign policy is built on a particular take of Christianity; good and evil. I must admit it's not a Christianity that I recognise but no-one in their right mind would say that American policy was uninfluenced by religion.

The reality is that we are inherently religious. Now of course, particular manifestations of religion come and go. History shows us this. But religion itself never goes. And it's no good saying religion cause trouble we should work to eradicate it. Because self proclaimed godless societies ended up worshipping Joseph Stalin and Chairman Mao. The only issue is whether we worship a god who is worth worshipping or one who is not. We need something that is bigger than we are. Get rid of true religion and you end up with Hitler. Or Mugabe. 

In the West being subtle and sophisticated and a tad cynical we've cut our gods down to size and shared then out making them much more accessible. Our gods are youth beauty - which is why we like our celebrities, designer brands, a nice car, a good house. Now - and this is important - there's nothing wrong with these things of course. I like David and victoria Beckham. I really do. Problems only start when we realise that these things only take us so far. There is a day when we get in the BMW - or whatever it is that lights our fire - turn the engine on...and it fails to satisfy and we are plagued by the thought 'What is wrong?'. This is what the much vaunted mid-life crisis is about. We've achieved all the things we thought would make us fulfilled - but we are not satisfied. It's a particularly dangerous time. Quite often we think I need the love of another and thats when marriages are wrecked.


Our language is hopelessly inadequate. I once met an evangelical. He said 'Jesus is Lord'. I had no idea what he was talking about. Being 19 I recognised no lords of my life. I have to rely on the language of poets and artists like Teillhard de Chardin who called Christ the Cosmic Christ the Omega point on which we are all converging. Or Salvador Dali who said Christ is at the centre of every atom. 

Today is the feast of Christ the King. This is not historic claptrap derived from previous authoritarian regimes. Nor is it sentimentality. It is a groping towards that reality that there is something bigger than us. The bigger thing than us is God and His love for us. We have a beginning a middle and an end. So does the span of time. As in our personal life as in the full stretch of history God holds the beginning the middle and the end. He is Alpha and Omega and all points in between. God is bigger than all of us. The good news is that he is not Stalin, or Mugabe - or even a designer brand - He is love. And all will be well.