An Embarrassing Letter of Religious Enthusiasm by a Secular Humanist

Aged 17, Joe Armstrong, like so many of his contemporaries, became entranced by the Charismatic Renewal. The movement, supported by bishops and priests, was sweeping the Catholic Church in the late 1970s. People were ‘speaking in tongues’ and being ‘prayed over’. There were ‘Camp Jesus’ youth jamborees and all-night vigils.

It was as if the Holy Spirit had been released again, like the story of Pentecost, when the disciples went out to ‘preach the Good News’.

If God had really become human, if the Christian message really was true, it had to be the most important thing in life. But that ‘if’ is a very big word, upon which the lives of millions turn.

Secular Humanist Joe Armstrong reads a letter of religious enthusiasm that he wrote to his Uncle John, a priest in South Africa. Once embarrassed by the letter, now Joe is proud of it. It captures the feeling of the charismatic movement and it shows, even at the height of charismania, an underlying, and welcome, sense of doubt.