Christianity Today 257could doubt the authority of the Pope, practice birth con
trol, leave the priesthood and get married or indeed do
anything else one wanted to,(Note: The practice of abstaining from meat on Friday,
meant to emulate [esus's fasting and to commemorate
the day on which he was supposed to have been cruci
fied, eventually became a Church commandment and
for centuries served as a kind of Roman Catholic badge.)And:
'Vatican II, (the Second Vatican Council of 1%2), amazed
me,' wrote author, Doris Grumbach, in the Critic, 'be
cause it raised the possibility of more answers than one,
of gray areas, of a private world of conscience and be
haviour. But like all places in human experience of rig
our and rule, once the window was opened, everything
came under question. No constants remained, no abso
lutes, and the Church became for me a debatable ques
tion. 1 still ding to the Gospels, to Christ and sorne of
his followers as central to my life, but the institution no
longer seems important to me. 1 no longer live in il.' 6The investment and exercise of considerable authority in the es
tablished Trinitarian Church, ifnot its complete infallibility, never
theless still remains. It is evident, all these centuries later, even
within the Churches which have long rejected the authority of the
Pope over them. However, the validity of any form of religious
authority is today being doubted and rejected on a scale that has
never been known before. In the words of George Harrison:
When you're young you get taken to church by your
parents and you get pushed into religion at schooI.
They're trying to put something into your mind. Obvi
ously because nobody goes to church and nobody be
lieves in God. Why? Because they haven't interpreted
the Bible as it was intended. 1 didn't really believe in
God as l' d been taught il. It was just like something out
of a science fiction novel. You're taught just to have failli,
you don't have to worry about it, just believe what we're
telling you. 7\
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