Sir, - At the start of 2000 AD, I should like to know if I am correct in answering "Yes" to four questions. If I am wrong I shall be very pleased, but I should like to know where I have gone wrong.
As a priest of the Church of Ireland for more than 45 years, now retired from the full-time ministry, I have an obvious interest. I may well be written off as an "also-ran", out of touch with the modern world, and being (horror of horrors!) unsympathetic. As a servant of the Saviour, however, I would like to know what answers those who spurn the Church would give.
One: Has the family ceased to exist as a "unit of our society"? So many people now live together with or without the benefit of a marriage ceremony, and seem to want to live separate lives and have their children cared for by professionals; now we are to have the separation of tax allowances.
Two: Are we in a post-democratic society? It seems that family discipline is weakening and social obedience crumbling. We are told that "respect has to be earned." This appears to me to be often interpreted as: "I don't have to obey any rule or authority that I don't like." Personally, I would have thought that authorities set up democratically by due process should be entitled to respect and acceptance. They are all subject to failings but, if found wanting, in due course they can and should be corrected. But it seems to be increasingly accepted that "might is right". Three: Have we lost, with our sense of the Divine, the ability to make moral judgments? Many actions are justified by being expedient, economic, reasonable and/or practical. There are other explanations also but I very seldom hear that they are "right" or "wrong". I find it hard to see a basis for such a judgment in the materialistic world of 2000 AD.
Four: Is this the world we want to live in? - Yours, etc., Cecil A. Faull,
Beechpark, Lucan, Co Dublin.