Archbishops Sharia Statement

Let’s be honest now, what can I say that hasn’t already been said by the media or the “experts” as they like to be called. In my opinion, the Archbishop should not have said what he did and he was completely wrong to abuse his position like that. The Church of England have absolutely no claim to be a strong religion anymore when it is constantly surrendering its beliefs to try and claim members, first it said that “homosexuality is alright” – I have no personal problem with homosexuality,  however, C of E just cannot change beliefs whenever it wants to attract new members. Secondly, there was the teaching that the Bible might be allegorical – what is going on! Now, there is this! The Church of England seems to be suffering from internal secularisation, and to be honest, its quite saddening.

Washington D.C.

I must say that, after my visit to the Capital of the great US I was left a little disappointed. DC seemed to me to lack the character that our very own Capital city does. After going to DC I feel a great sense of britishness, and one that I am very proud of. I would definitely go back to DC, although I think the trip would be a lot better on my own, and the Hard Rock Cafe was a big let down! The Greene Turtle was easily the place to be on a night out in DC!

I’ll write a short review of the trips and visits that I attended whilst in Washington, although they are likely to be very short as I am absolutely worn out due to the face that I have been suffering from Bronchitis since I got back! (This being the main reason for the lack of blogging).

1. Capitol was quite simply the most impressive thing about Washington DC, it was both amazing to look at and amazing to look around. The House Gallery was amazing and if anyone was ever to go to DC I would definitely recommend it for a visit, the tour guides also know the place inside out and their knowledge of the history of the place was outstanding. I was extremely impressed with the whole place.

2. The White House was not so impressive if I am to be completely honest, Mark (our teacher and group leader) spent something like four months organising the trip, had to go through about seventeen people, and then we ngot to see four rooms! We were absolutely fuming when we got out!

3. Arlington Cemetary was quite breathtaking, there was something like 290,000 graves and it was a strange feeling being there. I was impressed with Robert Kennedys grave, I thought it was simplistic yet moving.

4. The Night Life was poor, let’s just say that in my opinion, Washington D.C has nothing on London!

5. The Pentagon tour was quite interesting, I liked it alot, and although I felt that the people working there perhaps glorified war a little, I was extremely impressed with how much respect there was for the people that had lost their lives in the “War on Terror”.  

Religion

On the way back from Washington D.C. I got to talking with a Muslim friend about the subject of religion and the question came up “Which religion is the right one?”. This created a structured and intelligent argument between us and (very basically) had us arguing the advantages and disadvantages of our own religions. Being a Catholic, and a pretty strong theist, I quite enjoyed this discussion and when asked how I can pick and choose from my religion it got me thinking, and my answer was “because I go with what the Bible says, due to my belief that this is from a divine source, and not from what the Catechism of the Catholic Church says, as that is human made, and in my opinion is just a way of religion controlling people”… This didn’t seem to go down too well with my friend, as he is a devout Muslim and so didn’t really see that religion can be used to control people. Since this conversation I’ve been questioning whether or not, if I was to have that conversation again, I would ever answer anything differently, and to be completely honest I wouldn’t. There isn’t really much point to this blog, I just thought I’d share a little breakthrough I had in my own belief in God, maybe I’m a bad Catholic, but in my opinion, the Bible is right as it comes from God, and the Catechism is wrong, because it is man made.