Matthew Parris Matthew Parris

Christianity is silent on my great moral dilemma

If, as I believe, the main difficulty that faces us in deciding moral duty is the difficulty of prioritising, our national religion is profoundly unhelpful

issue 05 September 2015

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[/audioplayer]Proximity shouldn’t make a difference — should it? We were on a beach on the European side of the Mediterranean, it was a beautiful late August day, and I felt so happy. The sea was fresh, the sky was clear and a stiff breeze was whipping white horses out past the headland.

‘Rough weather for migrants,’ I thought, then checked myself. What an awful thing to think. There really would be migrants out there somewhere over the horizon; desperate people; people who, had they been visible to me — were they, Heaven forbid, to start coming ashore — would have turned my perfect day into a day of torment.

But I couldn’t see them, and my perfect day continued unspoiled but for the slightest tickle of disquiet.

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