Turn the Other One

Some well-fed gentlemen with reasonable pension plans are asking their invisible friend to make the rest of us a bit more civil to each other. Presumably stirred to compassion by the recent characterisation of a prominent congregant as nebulous, the bishops of the Church of England have urged that the country "bring grace and generosity back into our national life" as it was in the good old days. The bishops proclaim, in the teeth of the Gospels and two thousand years of church history, that the heart of the Christian message is Jesus' command to love our neighbour, including those with whom we disagree. They urge that the homeless show magnanimity to their evictors, that the citizen of nowhere be more respectful of the nationalist, and that the truth-teller reconcile with the Rees-Mogg. There are fine people on all sides, and an urgent need for the United Kingdom to recover a shared vision and identity, and a great many church roofs needing repair.