Religion

[Wyndham]

Yes, those would be them Robert. Was very interesting on those sort of subjects. Said, for example, that we tell children now that its immoral to have sex with somebody you don't love deeply. Three generations ago most people married people they surely didn't love, and might not even know, and the lucky couple was expected to perform that very night. There was no divorce. The bastardry rate was miniscule.

[Aravis]

You had me until the last line Wyn. History shows that it was not at all uncommon for married men to sire bastards with their mistresses. You hear less about the bastards married women might have carried for their lovers, mainly because it was in their best interest to convince their husbands that the child was his. *G*

Does the term "bastard" even still apply in this modern age where so many people don't believe that marriage is necessary or desirable? If any child who was not born in wedlock is still considered a bastard, then yes, the number of bastards these days are astronomical. I just don't know too many people who view the world in these terms anymore.

[Wyndham]

I think the historical rate of bastardry in England was just over 1% of births. Its risen very quickly since the 50s and, google tells me, passed 50% in Wales in 2003, and is about 1/3rd or more everywhere in the UK. I would guess that we are about the same. The concept exists. Its most of the implications of being one that have fallen away, of course.

His point was that the purpose of marriage previously wasn't to sanctify the union of two people who loved one another, but to legally ensure that children had parents bound by law to stick around. Sex wasn't about desire: it was a legal, witnessed act.

Of course people had mistresses, but I think the incidence might be less than we think, in the English speaking world anyway. Under the common law I believe that fathers were always liable for the children they sired, in or out of marriage. Breeding children with a mistress would, I would guess, be a rich man's perogative (then as now).

[RobertGraves]

I am a bastard and so's my child.

Sounds like a line from Monty Python. ;D

[Aravis]

I am too Robert, not that it's ever bothered me any. ;D

[Tenarke]

Drat! I’ve been away for a few days and so missed out on this.

“Fribbly”? “Wibble? I thought that cyberspeak was the principal corrupter of modern English - guess not.

Now in my mid seventies with my urges less frequent and less potent, I suppose I count myself lucky. If the equipment were still as willing, my mastery of the amorous arts would probably be as before, but I doubt if I could keep up with this new terminology.

We owe much to bastards. What would the Brits and you other semi-Brits do without William the Conqueror, the bastard son of Robert I, the Duke of Normandy?

Also my serious interest in theater dates from my first performance in a Shakespearian play. I played Richard the Bastard in King John and haven’t been quite the same since.

Up the Bastards!

[RobertGraves]

My bastardry - is that the right word - is unusual. My parents were married when I was born but my mother didn't actually give birth to me. What, you ask? I was adopted, my natural mother was unmarried.

Technically, I am a bastard I guess but my legal parents were married. I still claim bastard status though.

[Tenarke]

I have heard nothing of fundamentalist evangelicals infiltrating the other two service academies, but this is the latest of several reports of this problem in the Air Force.
www.nytimes.com/2005/06/11/opinion/11sat2.html?th&emc=th

If this were to continue unchecked we would be all set for our own Jihad. Crusader Knights in F22 Raptors, missiles hot, ready to free the Middle East from the infidel, Sir!

[pinkozcat]

The Anglican Diocese of Perth, here in Western Australia, is considering abandoning Sunday church services due to people wanting to do other things on Sundays and therefore no longer attending church.

I'm not sure exactly what the church intends to do as an alternative.

The Catholic church here has taken to advertising in the newspaper exhorting failed Catholics to return to the fold.

[RobertGraves]

'Pokies' in church or raffles with mini-iPods as prizes may help.

[pinkozcat]

Door prizes ??

[Wyndham]

Aravis. I didn't get asked for my age either. Just got an activation code through email. Perhaps its gender discriminating . . .

Read Tenarke's bit on crusaders in the air force. Very odd that, but the way things are shaping. I'm thinking, however, that the US will have a rough time of it -- your military history celebrates, for example, the religiousity of Stonewall Jackson et. al.

Give up Sunday Service? Yikes! And the Anglican Church in Canada is in trouble for considering homosexual ordination! Couldn't do it on Saturday -- that would interfere with golf (no danger of Judiasing, therefore). Can't do it on Fridays. That would kill happy hour, and the bars would complain (therefore, as well, no danger of Islamic tendencies). Might just have to shift the thing to Wednesday, when there's nothing better to do, and everybody is more or less resigned to drudgery.

I think we are in danger of going more in the direction of the US in regards to religion (though a generation behind, as always -- wise policy that: seeing what happens before you launch), than moving church to Wednesdays. Sometimes I really believe that my grand-children will be named Ebenezer and Hannah, and think of me as a notorious sinner.

www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20050613.wxpreacher13/BNStory/National/

[Aravis]

Sometimes I really believe that my grand-children will be named Ebenezer and Hannah, and think of me as a notorious sinner.

Aren't you? ;D

But then, I would rather be a notorious sinner than stuck in the world you describe, Wyn, so I'd be right there with you!

[RobertGraves]

Worshippers wearing thongs will not receive a ticket at te door.

[RobertGraves]

Worshippers wearing thongs will not receive a ticket at te door.