The Olympic Games opening ceremonies celebrated workers’ rights and the dignity of human labor in a deeply spiritual way according to a report from Ekklesia:
Halfway through the Olympic Opening Ceremony, Paul Mason, Economics Editor of the BBC’s Newsnight tweeted, ‘Entire ceremony has echoes of catholic priesthood who taught Danny (and me) – rerum novarum etc’. I was glad when I read this, as I was beginning to think I’d been imagining it.
Rerum Novarum, a Papal Encyclical dealing with workers rights and the dignity of labour, is probably the stuff of nightmares to a government which has seriously suggested that a way of helping the economy would be to make it easier to sack people, and believes making people work for nothing will create jobs.
Quite apart from the overt celebration of the NHS, which must have had Mr Lansley squirming in his seat, the ceremony came closer to defining a true ‘big society’, than Mr. Cameron has ever done, or one suspects, ever will.
The spiritual values transmitted throughout were uplifting, and remarkable in a secular age. The ceremony was subtly infused with Christian culture, but in a way that was inclusive and respectful of difference.
This inclusiveness evidently resonated with the population. When Conservative MP Aidan Burley, previously most famous for attending a Nazi-themed stag party, tweeted to complain about the multi-cultural nature of the event, he faced a huge backlash which ended with his account being closed.
Read the rest here.