Friday, January 14, 2005

God save the Queen - or No thankyou?

As a religious person, does it mean that I must believe monarchy to be idolatry? In the Bible it says that you can only have one master, and one king, that you can have no king but God:

'God said to Samuel, "Listen to the voice of the people in all that they tell you; for they have not rejected you, but they have rejected me, that I should not be king over them."'(Samuel 8:7)

As someone who wants to protect the environment, I hate the fact that the Crown Estates, which pays for the whole thing, is destroying marine environments and causing erosion by the dredging for aggregate extraction. What they do is sort huge amounts the sand and gravel each day, put it onto huge ships and sell it to other countries who have decided that they don't want to damage their own coastlines. We dig up far more aggregate than we need for own needs. They are literally selling off Britain, ship load by ship load in the name of her majesty. That fact does not endear me towards the monarchy.

As someone who believes in equality, I worry that it is a bad thing that every British child is taught they cannot get to the top of society because they have not been born to the right family. I worry that the monarchy supports the class system and helps it to cling to life with all the pernicious effects it has on people.

Sometimes people (often foreigners) say that without Britain would not be Britain without the monarchy. Ignoring for a moment that 'Britain' itself is a slightly difficult term, one is primarily English, Scottish, Welsh or Irish. It would be a different Britain but still be Britain. As John Major once said:

"Fifty years on from now, Britain will still be the country of long shadows on county grounds, warm beer, invincible green suburbs, dog lovers and old maids bicycling to Holy Communion through the morning mist."

This will still be true without the monarchy. There is a good chance that some of the cricketers will be Muslims and the old lady coming back from church will go home and eat curry for Sunday lunch. Do we really need the monarchy in modern Britain? The Island will not sink into the see if we don't have one, indeed it is more likely to sink with the Queen flogging off all the sand.

"There will always be an England and England shall be free". For this freedom we do we really need the monarchy? Or is it that freedoms in Britain have come from opposing and restricting the monarchy? Certainly our first 'constitution' was to restrict the domination of the bad King John:

"No free man shall be seized or imprisoned, or stripped of his rights or possessions, or outlawed or exiled, or deprived of his standing in any other way, nor will we proceed with force against him, or send others to do so, except by the lawful judgment of his equals or by the law of the land. To no one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice."

So is it our freedoms that are enshrined in our culture and history which make Britain? Rather than the monarchy?

13 comments:

Anonymous said...

No matter how you look at it GOD is a monarchist and a supporter of Monarchy. Do you ever hear GOD talk about republics or presidents? Are we going to elect GOD next? God refers to himself as the "king of kings." What does that statement in itself say? It doesnt say King of Presidents or King of Prime Ministers. If he is KING of KINGS that would lead a rational person to believe that he is king of Earthy Kings.

Tell me WHY is it that you feel a Republic is so great? Is it because you get a new leader every couple of years? HMMM lets look at that for just a second....What one presidents thinks is best for a country is not what another president thinks. Each wants his/her own mark on history so what really happens? Not very much.....How much has any American President really accomplished? Seriously take a look at it...

People like you make me sick. You believe in God then you are a Monarchist/Royalist. ACCEPT IT or find a different Religion.

Anonymous said...

In a modern society monarchy is unacceptable and completely incompatible with religion.
'Kings' were created initially as a viable means of controlling a country of people - indeed we owe it to them in early history for preserving societies from anarchy and destruction.
In the turbulent early years of history it would have been impossible to implement a democracy or republic.
However, time has moved on, society is civilised and democracy and indeed republicanism has superseded monarchy, which is outdated and needs to be disposed of.
God created Adam before Eve, women in early religion were treated unequally and St. Paul even speaks of them as second rate.
Does this mean that God supports sexism?

Anonymous said...

i think the comments by adam foster are disgusting and distrubing the fact is that god said do not worship any other than me. all this anti american clap trap is pathetic i suppose we should be greatful that this mr foster only slags the commenter off personally in the bad old days people would have been done for treason for want rid of the monarchy the monarchy is made on evil and vile foundations (remeber monarchs in history committed evil acts to strength there position) and eventually those foundations will collaspe

Anonymous said...

This webside is a shame! Do you realy think that many people support a bloody rebublic in your country? Look back to the funeral of Queen Mother and the golden jubilee 2002 (I was in the crowd). When the Royal family needs support-the people will come. It is not true that 70% support the monarchy? The costs are ca. 80 p per person in the year. For this money there is "pomp and circumstance" for all and tourists came to see it. Look to republics! Do you think thant any tourist comes to Berlin to see the "familiy of the Bundespräsident" waving from the balcony? Do you really think that Germany or France (and their people) have more and better democraty than you in Britain. Remember that Britain have had the first democraty in modern times when the other europ. countries lives in dictaturship.Its`funy!! Your country should be not the same without monarchy and there traditions.This is fact!

Forgive me my bad englisch, I`m from the continent and I support the Great British Monarchy. Save your traditions - thats all you have!!

Anonymous said...

Ah! but without the Monarchy, Blair would be President! This would indeed be an unfortunate thing for all of us (Bad enough having him as Prime Minister). He is so power-mad that this country would end up with him for as long as he lives. He would have the Political Constitution drawn up so that he could not be removed very easily, if at all.

Anonymous said...

If theres was no executive leader by birthright, Great Britain would actually have a true balance of power. Terminal heads of state have accountability; a monarch has none, short of civil war.

Anonymous said...

There is no place in this society for the monarchy, and there should be no place in this society for religion!

The monarchy belong in the past, lets remember them within the history books, as a time when society was narrow minded, illogical and primitive. Religion should also follow exactly the same process.

For all the supporters of the monarchy, lets me just say one thing...do your research before you accept anything!

You would find out what you put in your mouth before eating it, wouldn’t you? (I would hope so) so therefore you should apply the same logic to supporting one of the most corrupt systems this world has ever seen.

Look at both sides of a debate before passing judgment. If you really want to know how wrong you can be about the monarchy, get on Google and start finding out about 'THE BLACK NOBILITY' you will discover the system of monarchy you support is evil, corrupt and they all are all very anti-religious. Its sounds crazy I know, but a little research will change your view.

I am also against religion, but for very different reasons to the monarchy. My reasons are logical and rational thought. Religion is another institution that is so corrupt you would not believe, its founded upon lies and deceit. Did you know the Bible itself was written by the Romans who borrowed most of the stories from Egyptian and Greek mythology pre-dating 'the birth of christ’?

A good documentary is Zeitgeist (do a Google search again and you can watch it online). You will see that religion and the monarchy are both corrupt, and have worked together in shaping and controlling society just the way they want it.

Etheldred said...

And politicians haven't worked together to shape History and get what they want? Society is controlled by a lot more than Religion and the Monarchy; it's called the Government.

Nowadays, Presidents and Prime Ministers are given special privileges, which, actually, are often not far off what the Royal Families of the world have.

There will never be such a thing as equality, sadly, because there are, and always have been factors that prevent this from happening.

Anyone who can wholeheartedly claim that they disagree with the Monarchy, yet that they support a political leader of whichever faction is supporting an establishment, a hierarchy. There's no breaking away from that.

There will always be a hierarchy, and perhaps it's a good thing. After all, if you believe in religion, you believe in someone higher than you. If you believe in politics, you believe in someone higher than you, because you elect people to run things, so they make the decisions, thus placing them higher than most people because they're in control. Those people who believe in evolution support hierarchies, too, because in nature there are numerous examples of them, and if we evolved from Apes, then we evolved from a species that has a hierarchy.

President or Prime Minister, they still wield the power that the Kings and Queens once had, just in modern day form, with different titles, and probably the same amount of pomp and circumstance.

Instead of trying to escape hierarchies, maybe the answer is to embrace them, make the necessary changes to ensure that power isn't abused, and accept that there are people who are always better off than yourself. I take that from the statement about people being worse off than yourself. This is also true, and will never ever change.

As for the people who desire the Royal Families of the world to be abolished, well, why should all countries be an exact clone of a certain country? Surely we should be, ah, allowed to have traditions? Or must everything be stripped away by those with no understanding of it?

Anonymous said...

Fuck the Queen and her Reptilian acolytes/sycophants!

Alan S said...

I dont disagree with your comments about the need for a hierachy.

What I don't agree with is the need for a Monarchy. Politicians and governments are voted in to power for their policies and talents as leaders and to represent the people that put them there. Monrachies on the other hand, have done nothing to earn their title other than having the good fortune to be born into a family that takes from the people and gives very little in return.

If a political party doesn't perform the way the people want then they don't get voted for, we don't get that choice with a Monarchy.

Mak said...

No, get rid of the parasite queen. and save millions for poor people.

Anonymous said...

No there is no need for this parasite queen, kick her bum out of the palace.

Anonymous said...

I too KNOW that God is a monarchist.The Lords prayer,thy KINGDOM come,thy WILL be done on EARTH as it is heaven,etc,etc. For me the only problem is that the current "dynasty" are usurpers.The genuine King of England is 'King Franz Wittelsbach-Stuart of Bavaria {& just take a look at his royal niece,H.R.H Princess Sophia,a real princess of England Scotland & Ireland.
God bless the TRUE cause.