6 thoughts on “Rev Dr Rob Marshall, Priest at St John the Evangelist, Welwyn Garden City”

  1. I agree wholeheartedly with Marshall’s enjoyment of being with young people. When I was young the most annoying people were those who complained about the young being soft, and they still are. One great thing for the young nowadays is the ability to look up whatever they want to check that their elders aren’t talking rubbish. We’ve seen in recent years how easy it is to still be fooled by snake oil salesmen, but at least in the UK it seems that fewer and fewer young people are being taken in by the made up stories of religions. OK, some of them will still be fooled by other stories, but as a young person looking to dismiss religion as irrelevant I would have loved the chance that young people now have to look up the sum of human knowledge on the web and at least have chance to cross check my thoughts.

    My RE GCE exam in the mid-1970’s was called Divinity (I got a C from one lesson a week) and purely focussed on the Christian bible and mainly the New Testament. At least students nowadays study alongside religious ideas some philosophical and ethical arguments related to issues. I’m sure their awareness of different ideas will make for a less religious cohort in the future and Marshall will see fewer of them coming through his church doors. 

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  2. My daughter, now 27, went to a CofE primary school. The curriculum for RE covered all of the world’s major religions. I was brought up thinking that there was only one religion, once I realised that there were several contradictory religions I took a pretty big stride toward Atheism. I actually attended the same school when I was little, I don’t recall anything about religion being taught there at all. You will know how long ago this was and how ancient I am if I mention that back then the school still had caning.

    Stonyground.

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  3. Marshall did make a few good points, although goodness knows why he had to dredge up a psychiatrist who no-one has heard of to support the clichéd view that the old always think the young are soft.

    If anything, it should be the other way around. As a Boomer, I benefited from a subsidised school place, free university education, subsidised living costs at uni, affordable house prices (and for those less fortunate there was extensive social housing with strict rent control), a safe job and a decent pension. There was of course stultifying social inertia, inequality, prejudice, hypocrisy, censorship and the dead hand of the churches lying across much of society. But I didn’t have the struggle that so many of my children’s generation have had, and I am not at all surprised that many of them think we are the softies. Still, as Paul points out, we all have the continuing loss of religiosity to look forward to.

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  4. ”Jean Marie Twenge (born August 24, 1971)[2] is an American psychologist researching generational differences, including work values, life goals, and social attitudes. She is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University,[4][5][1] author, consultant, and public speaker.[6] She has examined generational differences in work attitudes,[7] life goals,[8] developmental speed,[9]sexual behavior,[10] and religious commitment.” Wikipedia

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  5. ”Jean Marie Twenge (born August 24, 1971)[2] is an American psychologist researching generational differences, including work values, life goals, and social attitudes. She is a professor of psychology at San Diego State University,[4][5][1] author, consultant, and public speaker.[6] She has examined generational differences in work attitudes,[7] life goals,[8] developmental speed,[9] sexual behavior,[10] and religious commitment.[11]” Wikipedia

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