Part 30. Gatekeepers

Attend a professional sporting event and it is likely you will have to show your ticket at the gate, to the gatekeeper. No ticket no entry. Once inside the arena you might wish to leave early and have to seek out a gatekeeper to unlock an exit. However there are other gatekeepers not concerned about physical movement through a gate or door. Rather their interest is in seeking to influence or insist on what a person may see, read,  think or do.

Censors are gatekeepers who until recently in the UK could ban films from public showings, limit what could be performed in theatres and  books from public consumption.

The judiciary  got in on the act. Thus in Shaw v DPP 1962 and Knupfer v DPP 1973 the House of Lords held that it had the power in common law to protect public morals and society's welfare. The cases decided it was criminal conspiracy to be party to the publication of salacious material.

My main focus however is the role of gatekeeper played by churches and governments and their agents in the field. Heretics were burnt, catholics and protestants killed each other, people are excommunicated  or thrown out and let's not forget the Crusades and the work of christian missionaries. We read today of christians being persecuted in many countries.

However there are more subtle ways to be a gamekeeper. Churches have traditions, doctrine, rules and regulations, ordering of services and demands on lifestyle. It can all be coercive, to keep the individual in line. 

There is an expectation by the church that its teaching will be adhered to and its clergy and congregations will accept uncritically the pearls of theological wisdom laid before them.  Fortunately this approach is not meekly accepted.  Change is driven from the bottom upwards. Thus we have the impact of Liberation Theology on the Roman Catholic Church and the more widespread influence it has had. The Salvation Army is being challenged from below to change its stance on sexual orientation issues. The Church of England is undergoing a similar challenge only a few years since the furore over the ordination of women.

Beware those who seek to restrict the all inclusive love of God by insisting on discredited literalist interpretation. God cannot be censored.