{"id":122723,"date":"2021-10-04T22:02:55","date_gmt":"2021-10-04T20:02:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/?p=122723"},"modified":"2021-10-04T23:13:45","modified_gmt":"2021-10-04T21:13:45","slug":"if-even-a-fool-understands-theres-no-god-why-cant-the-queen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/thefreethinker\/2021\/10\/if-even-a-fool-understands-theres-no-god-why-cant-the-queen\/","title":{"rendered":"If even a fool understands there&#8217;s no God, why can&#8217;t the Queen?"},"content":{"rendered":"<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC \"-\/\/W3C\/\/DTD HTML 4.0 Transitional\/\/EN\" \"http:\/\/www.w3.org\/TR\/REC-html40\/loose.dtd\">\n<html><head><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><meta http-equiv=\"content-type\" content=\"text\/html; charset=utf-8\"><\/head><body><p><strong>THE <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/queen-elizabeth-thanks-bbc-series-songs-of-praise-for-showing-christianity-as-a-living-faith.html?clickType=link-most-popular\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\"><span style=\"color: #333399;\"><em>Christian Post<\/em><\/span><\/a> has weighed in on the religiosity of\u00a0 Queen Elizabeth II following her eulogising the inexorable BBC series, <em>Songs of Praise<\/em>, which has been running for 60 years.<\/strong><\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_122732\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-122732\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-122732 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/10\/queen.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"391\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-122732\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>In a special message to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the series on Sunday, the 95-year-old head of the Church of England and International Queen of Bling thanked the BBC for presenting Christianity as a \u201cliving faith.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>For 60 years, Songs of Praise has drawn together congregations and BBC viewers throughout the United Kingdom in collective worship.<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>During that time, the programme has shown Christianity as a living faith not only through hymns and worship songs, but also by featuring the many people who have put their faith at the centre of their lives.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Aled Jones, who has been a <em>Songs of Praise<\/em> presenter for over 20 years, called it:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em> One of the biggest joys of my life. It is an honour to be able to share uplifting stories of faith with our dear audience and to gladden hearts with music that means the world to me. Here\u2019s to a future filled with wonderful \u2018Songs of Praise!\u2019.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_122734\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-122734\" style=\"width: 700px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-122734 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2021\/10\/poll.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"700\" height=\"322\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-122734\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via YouGov<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>This despite the fact that it has a popularity rating of a pathetic 20 percent.<\/p>\n<p>The <em>CP<\/em> pointed out that the late Prince Philip played a key role in getting the Queen to talk more about her own faith in her dreary Christmas broadcasts.<\/p>\n<p>The Rev Ian Bradley, author of <em>God Save the Queen<\/em>,\u00a0 recalled that in the old days, her messages:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Really used to be more like travelogues, and they would just say where the royal family had been.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Bradley also shared that Prince Philip was interested in theology.<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>He had a wonderful knowledge of the Bible.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>In a 2016 book ahead of her 90th birthday, the queen reflected on Jesus\u2019 central role in her life. She wrote in the foreword to <em>The Servant Queen and the King She Serves:<\/em><\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>I have been \u2013 and remain \u2013 very grateful to you for your prayers and to God for His steadfast love. I have indeed seen His faithfulness.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<figure id=\"attachment_103871\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-103871\" style=\"width: 731px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"wp-image-103871 size-full\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/1122\/2020\/06\/Boris.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"731\" height=\"476\"><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-103871\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Image via YouTube<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>Back in July, the<a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/boris-johnson-christianity-is-a-superb-ethical-system.html?clickType=link-related-articles\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\" class=\" decorated-link\"><em> CP<\/em><\/a> ran a piece about Prime Minister Boris Johnson, above, who, on being told that Labour Party leader Sir Keir Starmer didn\u2019t believe in God, quickly quoted Psalm 14:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>The foolish man has said in his heart there is no God.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>The piece quoted Johnson as saying:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em>Christianity is a superb ethical system and I would count myself as a kind of very, very bad Christian. No disrespect to any other religions, but Christianity makes a lot of sense to me.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>As part of a Bible reading project for the King James Bible Trust, in which a reading of the entire Bible was posted on YouTube, Johnson read from Isaiah Chapter 11. He called the King James version<\/p>\n<blockquote><p><em> The single most beautiful and influential work of English literature.<\/em><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><strong>Hat tip: BarrieJohn<\/strong><em><br>\n<\/em><\/p>\n<h3><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><strong>\u2022 Please report any typos\/errors to barry@freethinker.co.uk<\/strong><\/span><\/h3>\n<h3>If you\u2019d like to buy me a cup of coffee \u2013 and boy, do I get through a <em>LOT<\/em> of coffee keeping this site active \u2013 please click the link below.<\/h3>\n<p><a class=\"bmc-button decorated-link decorated-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.buymeacoffee.com\/freethinker1881\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/cdn.buymeacoffee.com\/buttons\/bmc-new-btn-logo.svg\" alt=\"I'd love a cup of coffee\" data-pagespeed-url-hash=\"4191136019\">I\u2019d love a cup of coffee<\/a><\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>THE Christian Post has weighed in on the religiosity of\u00a0 Queen Elizabeth II following her eulogising the inexorable BBC series, Songs of Praise, which has been running for 60 years. In a special message to mark the sixtieth anniversary of the series on Sunday, the 95-year-old head of the Church of England and International Queen [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3705,"featured_media":122735,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9],"tags":[9517,39,1243,3360],"class_list":["post-122723","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-boris-john","tag-christianity","tag-queen-elizabeth-ii","tag-songs-of-praise"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.1 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>If even a fool understands there&#039;s no God, why can&#039;t the Queen?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"THE Christian Post has weighed in on the religiosity of\u00a0 Queen Elizabeth II following her eulogising the inexorable BBC series, Songs of 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