The Pilgrim
Celebrating the King James Bible
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Written by The Pilgrim
As most readers will doubtless be aware, this year marks the four hundredth anniversary of the publication of the King James Bible. This was one of the first ever translations of The Bible into English, and the first one to have the approval of the government. For the first time ever in this country, ordinary people could sit down to read a copy of The Bible, and not have to worry about whether or not the Bible police would get them.
Such was its popularity that it remained the most widely used translation of The Bible in this country until well into the twentieth century. To this day, a lot of people prefer it to other more recent translations, usually because they like its poetic style.
The powers that be have decided to celebrate this fourth centenary, and have got off to a cracking start by ruling that Christian values are of no importance in an age of gay rights.
For my part, I would like to tell you about the time when John Cleese addressed a meeting of secular humanists. I believe his speech went something like this:
JOHN CLEESE
Christianity is mere superstition, and we don’t need it. After all, what has Christianity ever given us?
FIRST HUMANIST
The end of slavery.
JOHN CLEESE
What?
FIRST HUMANIST
Slavery – it was abolished after a long campaign led by Christians like Granville Sharp.
JOHN CLEESE
Yes, true – but apart from that?
SECOND HUMANIST
Prison reform. Elizabeth Fry was a leading prison reformer in the nineteenth century, and she was a Quaker.
JOHN CLEESE
All right – prison reform and the end of slavery were Christian achievements. But apart from those two things, what has Christianity ever given us?
THIRD HUMANIST
Education for the masses.
FOURTH HUMANIST
That’s right. Christians like Thomas Charles led the way in bringing education to poor people back in the eighteenth century.
JOHN CLEESE
Yes, well, education for the masses goes without saying, but what else have Christians done for us?
FIRST HUMANIST
Phsyics.
SECOND HUMANIST
Yeah, that’s right. Isaac Newton and James Clerk Maxwell were both great physicists, and they were Christians.
THIRD HUMANIST
And what about biology and chemistry? Louis Pasteur and Antoine Lavoisier led the way in both, and they were Christians.
FOURTH HUMANIST
And Gregor Mendel discovered genetics, and he was a Christian.
JOHN CLEESE
All right, so Christianity helped lay the foundations of modern science – but apart from that?
FIRST HUMANIST
Social reform.
SECOND HUMANIST
That’s right – a lot of our greatest ever politicians were Christians - Lord Shaftesbury for example. He took young children out of the coal mines, and reformed the treatment of the mentally ill.
THIRD HUMANIST
And what about the Topluddle Martyrs? They helped get the trade union movement on its feet in this country, and they were Methodists.
JOHN CLEESE
All right, all right – but apart from ending slavery, prison reform, education for the masses, physics, chemistry, biology, genetics, and social reform, what has Christianity ever given us?
FOURTH HUMANIST
Brought peace.
Admittedly not all of the people mentioned above were British, and so not all of them would have read the King James Bible, but it is undoubtedly one of the most influential books in British history.
