A moral primer
Sir : Is Mr Raven writing facetiously or in earnest (2 August)? If the former, his article is in dangerously bad taste; if the latter, it is pathetic. I restrict myself to three comments.
Whatever his creed, he betrays its utter bank- ruptcy, for the best advice he can give to a thoughtful youth, in what must be a most seri- ous aspect of his life, is consciously to embark on a course of deliberate deception. Poor man.
It was long before Mr Raven's time that a spiritual writer exclaimed : 'The fool says in his heart, "There is no God." Their deeds are corrupt and vile . .
Mr Raven, however, seems not to have pro- gressed beyond the state of primitive man, for his instinctive reaction is to complain about religious teaching that it inculcates a modicum of sexual restraint.
For Mr Raven himself I feel considerable sadness; but one further aspect of his article needs serious mention. We must suppose that be has read enough about Christianity to know the claims that Christ makes for himself, amongst them, e.g. `... I have come down from heaven, not to do my own will, but to do the will of the one who sent me.' That being so, it seems true to say that, in the simplest and most literal sense, his article is written in the spirit of anti-Christ. Christians are not so naive as to think that no one could disagree with them. I hope we would not deny that the unbeliever has a right to express his unbelief. But I suggest, sir, that we have cause for consternation that it should seem to be the editorial policy of the SPECTATOR to commission such writing and to produce it with such éclat.
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