The Aardvark Blog

Never Explain, Never Apologise
2/03/2024

A while ago I found myself in church listening to an obviously cultured and well-spoken vicar. They had a pleasant voice and a warm manner and as a consequence my liking for them grew. At that point unfortunately things took a turn for the worse as they started to say that it was fine if people weren't religious and that they should feel free to think about the service in whichever way they chose.

I am sure that it wasn't intended, but the effect of their words was to sound as they were apologising for inflicting religion on a bunch of people who would rather they hadn't. It was a long long way from 'But we preach Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumbling block, and unto the Greeks foolishness'.

Now here is the thing: I think that anybody who really objected to anything or everything religious would not have been there anyway. For the rest I think most people are like me: even if we disagree with someone, we would rather that they gave the impression that they believed in what they were saying, rather than apologising for saying anything at all.

Now I am sure that it is the case that many of the people who come into Aardvark do so with no intention of purchasing a book. It maybe they have come for a hot chocolate or a birthday card, or indeed that they may have just wanted to see what was going on. And that is fine. But I am a bookseller to my fingertips and even if people are uninterested in books, I am not going to apologise for continuing to sell and indeed wax lyrical about them.That is what I am and that is what I do.

One of the things I have always admired about the Roman Catholic Church (and let me say at this point there are many things I don't admire about it), is its refusal to go along with the fashionable herd. Their moral and gender politics maybe unbelievably wrong headed, but they do at least have the virtue of being genuinely expressed. I hope that during my lifetime they will come to acknowledge - as the Church of England is starting to do in a glacial fashion - that the love between two people of the same gender may be profound and spiritual. Or, that the spiritual talents and pastoral dedication of women as demonstrated from before Christianity was even thought of, are not nugatory and indeed could form the cornerstone of a new and reinvigorated church.

And if they do indeed come to these changed positions, I will know that they have not done so out of enervated weariness, but because they have in time come to understand that these things are true.

I believe that it is our duty as human beings always to embrace and hold out a hand to those who are different from us and who hold contrary views and values. But the only way to truly engage in dialogue is to do so from the bedrock of a strongly argued and held belief system.

And so I say with the great David Hare, 'Keats is better than Bob Dylan', P-books are definitely better than Ebooks, and there is no more refreshing drink on the planet than a cup of leaf tea. Like Martin Luther, here I stand.

I may be wrong, but I am not frit (as Mrs T would say).