"[Merseians] set more store by ceremony and tradition, even that of aliens, than latter-day humans did."
-CHAPTER ONE, p. 198.
Indeed, when Djana wants to give Flandry Christian burial, Ydwyr says:
"'It would not be right to forbid your giving your dead their due.'"
-CHAPTER SEVENTEEN, p. 333.
The Merseian attitude accords with the best human practice. Everyone but a few sectarians takes for granted that we attend weddings and funerals of friends and colleagues, irrespective of tradition.
Someone in the South of Ireland tried to organize a boycott of a wedding when their cousin, brought up like them in Catholicism, married in the Church of Ireland. They succeeded in organizing a boycott of themselves. When the Pope said it was ok for Catholics to attend non-Catholic weddings, he was authorizing what anyone with any sense, including my mother, was already doing.
I attended a handfast (Pagan wedding) where the appropriate deity was invoked for each of the two people. Since one was Christian, her deity was "the Lord Jesus." It would have been wrong to leave him out.
(A bit waffly but I'm having to switch off.)
6 comments:
Kaor, Paul!
Except, of course, Catholics at Anglican weddings would not receive Anglican communion, and vice versa. But that would or should be understood by everyone.
Ad astra! Sean
Kaor, Paul!
And some humans still respected ceremony and tradition. The beginning of Chapter One of ENSIGN FLANDRY mentions how the court on Terra still felt bound to follow daylight around the world for one exhausting ceremony after another honoring the Emperor's birthday.
Ad astra! Sean
Sean,
I was pleased to learn at a Catholic funeral that, although non-initiates could not go forward to receive Communion, they could go up to receive a blessing from the priest and could thus participate in the liturgy to that extent.
I gratefully accept food that has first been offered to Krishna although I imagine that Christians and Muslims feel otherwise.
Paul.
Kaor, Paul!
Of course I have no objection to a simple blessing.
The question about food offered to idols is a bit more complicated. I recall St. Paul writing in his letters that Christians could buy meat sold in the markets that might have been previously sacrificed to pagan gods.
Christians should not take part in rites worshiping pagan gods, but they can buy foods that might have been offered to the idols.
Ad astra! Sean
Towards the end of the Bourbon dynasty, a minister of state was asked why he wasn't enforcing the anti-Protestant provisions of the laws.
He replied that they were useful to the government, and that: "As long as men worship the State, let them have such lesser Gods as they please."
One of the main sources of tolerance is indifference. It's easy to tolerate something you don't consider important, as that minister thought of sectarian divides.
Kaor, Mr. Stirling!
Tolerance is or can be a good thing, indifference is not. Louis XVI was a kind, gentle, and tolerant monarch, but he was not indifferent about beliefs.
Ad astra! Sean
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