Frankly, much of the Church has been mad for decades. There has been a general infantilisation at work. It is not so long since the archbishops of Canterbury and York put their names to a Lent booklet distributed to all the parishes. They wrote the foreword to three guides: one for The Family; one for Adults and Youth and the other for Kids.<\/p>\n
These glossy booklets feature Mr Men-style cartoons which we must suppose represent the general public. Achingly politically correct, with all races represented \u201d\u201c but no fat people or smokers \u201d\u201c and dumbing down beyond the farthest reaches of infantilisation, the booklets urge us to: \u201cDo fun things together. Create a space in your home… a corner of a room… an understairs cupboard… make a prayer den using furniture and blankets… gather some objects that are fun to touch, feel and smell: a piece of velvet, feathers, a tray of sand, lavender bags or pine cones.\u201d\u009d<\/p>\n
And what are we supposed to do in the prayer den? \u201cTake in some pebbles, shells or feathers…\u201d\u009d presumably to demonstrate impeccable ecumenical relations with primitive animists and tree-huggers. And prayers are indeed supplied: \u201cDear God, make wrong things right… \u201d\u009d But this is not praying to God, only the sentimental wish-fulfilment of appealing to Father Christmas or the Tooth Fairy. We are even educated as to the correct manual acts to perform while making this desolate prayer: \u201cShake your finger from side to side for ‘wrong\u2019 and then do thumbs up for ‘right\u2019.\u201d\u009d You feel there should be a caution not to do this near a window in case the neighbours see you and phone for the men in white coats.<\/p>\n