Religion
Letters: The joy of balconies
The closing of churches Sir: Stephen Hazell-Smith is quite right in writing that churches should re-open (Letters, 18 April), however…
Letters: The ban on public worship has enabled more of us to experience spiritual riches
Divine works Sir: Luke Coppen writes that livestreamed services ‘lack the vital communal dimension of worship’ and ‘are, at times,…
Why I joined the Jehovah’s Witnesses
The toad who lives at the bottom of the garden in the pile of bricks beneath the potting table was…
Will Coronavirus hasten the demise of religion - or herald its revival?
Whenever Christianity seems all but exhausted, it bursts into life once more
Jonathan Sacks: Joy is the Jewish way of defeating hate
Last Monday night and Tuesday were our Jewish festival of Purim, when we recall the events described in the Book…
‘A perfect knight’: Remembering Roger Scruton
Daniel Hannan Roger Scruton changed the course of my life. He addressed my school’s philosophy society when I was 16,…
Why I changed my mind about Catholicism
I grew up in a traditional English family, surrounded by cousins, chivvied by aunts, presided over by my grandmother, who…
‘I was a tortured, obviously brilliant child’: James Ellroy interviewed
James Ellroy is occasionally quoted as saying he’s the greatest American crime novelist ever. The man sometimes called the ‘demon…
When atheists stole the moral high ground
In 1585, Jacques du Perron presented to the court of the French king Henry III, as a kind of after-dinner…
Patently insincere: Kanye’s Jesus is King reviewed
Grade: B– Kanye West has found Jesus Christ. Lucky old Christ. If I were Christ I’d have hidden out a…
![Parents and children demonstrate against the No Outsiders programme at Parkfield School in Birmingham in March [Photo: Getty]](https://spectatorau.imgix.net/content/uploads/2019/10/Melanie_McDonagh.jpg?auto=compress,enhance,format&crop=faces,entropy,edges&fit=crop&w=410&h=275)
Should Muslim parents be allowed to challenge LGBT lessons?
We saw two different worlds, or at least two different value systems, collide in the High Court in Birmingham this…
The Democratic party’s post-Christian America
The new Pew report doesn’t mince words in its headline: ‘In US, Decline of Christianity Continues at Rapid Pace.’ In…
Why was a finals student disqualified for criticising halal meat?
We have to talk about the schoolgirl who was disqualified from a GCSE exam on the grounds that she had…
The West cannot survive without a re-energised belief in Christianity
There is no faster way to get yourself classed as dim than by admitting that you hold religious belief, especially…
The curious reaction to a niqab-wearing homophobe
Are we allowed to criticise the niqab yet? This question crossed my mind as I watched that viral clip of…
Letters: Stop and search is messy, confrontational and absolutely necessary
Support for stop and search Sir: Mary Wakefield is rightly exasperated by fatuous comments over police use of stop and…
Billy Connolly and the death of free speech
I hope readers will forgive me for returning to a subject I addressed here recently. It was a reflection on the…
Letters: God does lead us into temptation
Appeasement? Sir: Your editorial (‘Plan B’, 22 June) refers to the need for Boris Johnson, as prospective PM, to have…
History is made from ideas — but are ideas becoming history?
Wallace Stevens called it ‘the necessary angel’. Ted Hughes thought it ‘the most essential bit of machinery we have if…
The Pope is wrong to change the Lord’s Prayer
Is the pope a Catholic? You have to wonder. In the old days, a pope’s remit was modest: infallible, but…
What are the perks of being Jean-Claude Juncker?
Juncker’s perks The European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker complained that he doesn’t have an official residence, unlike the ambassadors who…
Whitby Abbey is at the heart of Britain’s spiritual and literary history
The 199 steps up to the ruins of Whitby Abbey are a pilgrimage; they always have been. And any good…
Justin Welby: Catholic or Protestant – who cares?
Justin Welby is working in Thomas Cranmer’s old study in Lambeth Palace, a room that looks as if it hasn’t…
The objects that sound witchiest on paper just look sad: Spellbound reviewed
Just in front of me, visiting Spellbound at the Ashmolean last week, was a very rational boy of about seven…
When haddocks flirt, they sound like a motorbike revving up
Flies buzzing, strange rustling, crunching sounds, and then the most chilling screech you’ll have heard all week. Vultures were feeding…
