Chameleon Priest

by David Cunningham

A chameleon-like demonstration was provided by the Rev. Michael Bordeaux, who spoke on "religion and communism" last Friday.

In the Union Hall he spoke as a scholar —impartial and objective.

Later in the "Catacombs" he spoke as a priest — with a dogmatism which led him to make assertions based on prejudice rather than evidence.

For instance in the Union Hall he was ever ready to admit gaps in his knowledge and total ignorance as to the situation in Albania, China, Cuba, North Vietnam, etc., but at the "Catacombs" would answer such questions, giving opinions, always of repressive minority regimes, until challenged by members of his audience. Of China, he said "religion was made illegal in 1966". But China has no codified body of law and in 1966 was in the throes of the cultural revolution. No such [unclear: w] has ever existed.

The Union Hall meeting was attended by about 150 students and sponsored by the Protestant chaplains. Bordeaux, an Anglican Priest, and Director of the Centre for the Study of Religion and Communism, gave a brief outline of church-state relation' in the Soviet Union. He prefaced this by noting that many Christians knew nothing of Marx, other than "religion is the opium of the people". He put this in context pointing out that in Marx's time opiates were the major pain killing drugs. Marx was thus showing both the positive aspect of religion — that is relieves "pain", and the negative aspect — that it mystifies the true nature of social relationships.

At the "Catacombs" Bordeaux spoke to a near capacity audience, but instead of keeping to the subject he is obviously familiar with, Russian history, he was prepared to make comments on any so-called "communist" country. It was pointed out by members of the audience, in both meetings, that there are no communist countries and that a communist society is most unlikely to exist for many generations to come — a long period of socialist construction and transformation being necessary.

He justified this by saying it was common usage to call countries with Communist party leadership "Communist". He failed to note that it is common usage, not of those countries, but of people hostile to them.

The major part of his "Catacomb's" talk was a dramatisation of the interrogation of a 12-year-old school girl by an agent of the KGB (both parts were played by Bordeaux who rushed back and forth across the rostrum — [unclear: t] Salient theatre critic unfortunately was not present.)

Bordeaux carries with him a small display of books, all of them hostile to socialism. When asked if this was indicative of hostility on his part, Bordeaux came to the [unclear: punch] line of the whole sorry joke.

"I come from a socialist country — Britain. We lead the world in socialism. Look at our medical services....."