Letter: Ulster is losing its soul – we need leaders with radical thinking to inspire the young with a new vision
A letter from Clive Maxwell:
Ulster is no longer a God fearing country - and it shows. Many take pride in telling us they are atheists, and no longer worship the God of their fathers.
It’s hard to take them seriously when they take the knee to other gods, and build shrines to them; a god occupies your thoughts and makes serious claims on your time.
They have rejected God, and in their ignorance raise altars to other deities; football has its own disciples, and they pay their way in to worship.
Sunday is no longer honoured as the Lord’s Day, and is now a day of leisure. The generation that read their Bible and deferred to it for guidance has passed on and left a closed book gathering dust, locked away in the cupboard.
A new generation that no longer fears God, or has a veneer of religion, has replaced them and wormed its way into every area of our lives. Religion has lost its vigour.
A virus that induces a form of artificial intelligence and robs the brain of its capacity to think has incubated in the churches, politics and the schools, and the symptoms are becoming more and more obvious. Veering from the liberal left to the insanity of woke, it has spilled onto the streets and the venom is corrupting our children.
Churches are no help. There was a time when they contended earnestly for the faith, but they have been tamed and hoisted the white flag; and lost respect.
Our unionist politicians, betrayed by Britain, are preaching a false message, and promoting a lost cause. The Ulster Unionists, trying to steal Alliance rags and wear them, are demoralised and looking increasingly ridiculous.
The DUP clinging to the pale shadow of its past - it’s still worth votes and fools the electorate - is trying to move on and create a new identity. They are now all things to all men, and can’t be trusted.
The Loyal Orders, encouraged by the politicians, are keeping their heads down and reinventing themselves as a tourist attraction; Scarva has become a carnival.
They no longer have anything of substance to say on issues affecting a community drifting close to the edge of extinction, and floundering. They need to sit down and map out a role for themselves if they are to be taken seriously.
In so many different ways our community has been bought, or coerced; we need a fresh infusion of blood from the grassroots.
We need leaders with radical thinking to inspire the young with a new vision, and dig us out of the hole we created and threatens to swallow us up.
Clive Maxwell, Bleary