Read on Twitter
. @_F_B_G_ writes very persuasively on the Church and Welfare State of a nation in crisis, and its politics.
And I'm prompted to wheel out my favourite hobby horse: there was an earlier English welfare state: the parish
And underpinning all, the family.
1/9 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/20/conservatives-church-of-england-welfare-tories-state-victorian?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
And I'm prompted to wheel out my favourite hobby horse: there was an earlier English welfare state: the parish
And underpinning all, the family.
1/9 https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/jan/20/conservatives-church-of-england-welfare-tories-state-victorian?CMP=Share_AndroidApp_Other
In the foreshortening of our memory there's a contrast set between the workhouse and the welfare state. But before the 1830s there were three centuries in which support for neighbours in need was the principal work of the parish, a secular duty of uncloistered sanctification.
2/9
2/9
The liturgy of the Book of Common Prayer, key text of the English Reformation, with the Bible, had the gathering of alms from parishioners, for the poor, at the heart of its central rite, the Lord's Supper, or Holy Communion. This was backed up by statute, i.e. not optional.
3/9
3/9
The funds were gathered and distributed by lay officials, chosen from the neighbourhood. Most would themselves rely on the parish at some point, not least old age, so there was an inbuilt tendency towards relative generosity. Also towards guarding the pot against strangers...
4/9
4/9
Couched in terms both pragmatic and theologically comprehensive, adherents of the old religion could support works of mercy, and Calvinists could give generously as a spiritual sacrifice, a sign of election, the Spirit loosening purse strings, and keeping the parish in order.
5/9
5/9
Undergirding this system, replacing more uneven medieval monastic and guild provision, was an assumption that the family was the primary, God-given, source of love and help in time of need. And the kingdom an extended family for that old Toryism that wasn't just about wealth.
6/9
6/9
Even Beveridge, 80 years ago, assumed a nation of mostly stable families, care for the young, old or sick largely the province of unpaid women, family or neighbours.
This is no longer nearly so sustainable, and reactionary dreams of wives retethered to kitchen sinks, fantasy.
7/9
This is no longer nearly so sustainable, and reactionary dreams of wives retethered to kitchen sinks, fantasy.
7/9
Such seismic changes are no more easily handled by the benefits system than by the Church's latest musings on marriage. Nonetheless generosity of spirit goes a long way. Claimants often feel under suspicion, not citizens to be honoured. That never happens in church of course.
8/9
8/9
'Remember the poor' lacks heft if its hearers don't know themselves to be accountable to God. And so the primary imperative is evangelistic. Hearts convicted and converted.
@_F_B_G_ performs this role with Swiftian satire, as in 'The New Inferno', in the recent @The_Fence_Mag
9/9
@_F_B_G_ performs this role with Swiftian satire, as in 'The New Inferno', in the recent @The_Fence_Mag
9/9
