The United Kingdom still has a great deal of spirituality left over from the High Church days. Please remember that every Protestant nation which at least attempted to keep the Holy Eucharist has kept at least some semblance of Christian thought. The traditional Lutherans and High Church Anglicans throughout the centuries have produced the best theologians after Roman Catholicism, after all! It is always the nations who try to preserve the most blessed of sacraments, who end up preserving true Christian morals for the longest time. Never give up hope so long as the Church of England retains the Holy Body!
These atheists are a passing phase, for the most part. “Godlessness” is a very trendy thing, like jeans being sold ripped in retail, and horrid music with no tonal center. Once Dawkins, Hitchens, Harris, et. al. die off (God forbid), I think the average citizenry will lose their atheist idols, and will stop worshiping them as they fade away.
Just think of the joke made by the pious Jew who converted to Catholicism during the reign of the vile Borgia Popes: his friend, the archbishop, wanted him to convert while still in France, as this jew was going on a business trip to the Vatican. Knowing full well that his friend would be utterly disgusted by the papacy at the time, the archbishop pleaded with him to be baptised there and then, incase Rome might turn him from Christianity altogether! The man still went to Rome, and came back 3 months later - having been baptised there! The archbishop was surprised, and asked how his friend could have retained his faith while in Rome. Our jewish convert said: “my dear fellow, I’m a traditional Jewish merchant, and I know how businesses rise and fall. There is no way such a corrupt and slimy den could have stayed in business for 1400 years except by a miracle! It is most certainly God’s Church!”
Quite apart from proving the fact that sinners can be infallible teachers of the Truth, it also shows that the Church is still going to hang around for a while. Even if the atheists were to assassinate Benedict XVI (knock on wood), we have wave after wave of cardinals at the ready. As Artur Rubinstein used to say: Nie dam się - never give in, and it will work.
