Academies Without Creeds

That title could refer to just about anything touching higher education these days, creeds of any sort being deemed a chill on the intellect. This view is held especially by people who think themselves much smarter than everyone whose earthly life is over, who seem to think history is populated with dupes and fools and wisdom was discovered yesterday.

In this case, however, it refers specifically to Sandhurst. “Sandhurst” is shorthand for the Royal Military Academy at Sandhurst where British Army officers are trained.

The Chaplain of Sandhurst, Reverend Jonathan Gough, has decided that the Apostle’s Creed must go lest religious minorities be offended. Cranmer doubts the rationale:

For Cranmer is just ever so slightly curious to know if, in fact, the Reverend Jonathan Gough had received any complaints at all. And if he had, to which faith group did the offended cadet(s) belong? And did he ask this/these offended cadet(s) if they might be prepared to forego their own declaration of faith, lest their colleagues be offended?

Sandhurst’s senior chaplain has withdrawn the Creed simply for fear of offending non-believers and ‘to stop upsetting cadets who do not believe in God’. And Cranmer would bet his withered right arm that no offence had ever been reported and no cadets had ever been upset. The Reverend Jonathan simply wants services in the Royal Memorial Chapel to be ‘more inclusive’.

Rev. Gough is simply one more intellectual lemming fascinated by the idea of replacing Christianity with soft and spongy “faith systems.” It is very much the creed of the modern intellectual to view truth as subjective and personal. That creed is zealously enforced in academic circles.

The apparent goal is to bring up an officer corps with no particular belief in anything other than their personal whims. To this budding generation of nihilists we will hand the keys of aircraft carriers and the nuclear arsenal.

Fortunately, the officer corps has always placed a premium on honoring its traditions, but we could have said that about the Church of England until recently. For now, I take some small comfort that academics and vicars do not have command of a single warship or missile silo, and I hope that the people who do can recite the Apostle’s Creed.