Newsday carried a report of a lighthearted moment in the British House of Commons:
The beast of the Book of Revelation intruded into the banter of the House of Commons in London [January 10] when a motion calling for the disestablishment of the Church of England was numbered 666. The last book of the Bible says 666 is the number of a beast that "had two horns like a lamb, and ... spake as a dragon," and that "doeth great wonders, so that he maketh fire come down from heaven on the earth in the sight of men." Bob Russell, a Liberal Democrat lawmaker, pointed out that "it is incredible that a motion like this should have, by chance, acquired this significant number." Such motions are used by members to publicize issues and other members may show support by signing them. By [the] afternoon [of January 10], three people had signed.
Given that only three members signed the Bill, it is unlikely to be enacted into law. The Church of England is the national Church, established by law. And it enjoys special privileges. As long as it remained a truly Christian Church it stood as a safeguard for the British constitution. It guaranteed that the nation was self-consciously a professedly Christian nation, whose basic values and laws should reflect the spiritual foundations on which it was built. While I am no great admirer or apologist for the Church of England I am happy that for centuries the British constitution withstood many and varied attacks and, since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, has continued to give freedom to citizens of all denominations. However, the Church of England is hardly even a pale shadow of what it ought to be. Truth be told, it has often been a place in which good men and spiritual delinquents somehow held together in an uneasy alliance. In modern times, however, the Church of England has more and more disavowed its historic Protestantism and has elevated to its highest offices men who openly detest the fundamental doctrines of the Christian faith. It is an entirely ecumenical organization, seeking union with Rome. It is even worse, for at heart it is syncretistic, seeking union with religions that are openly heathen and anti-Christian.
So one part of me would be happy to see the whole hypocritical show disestablished, as the Church of Ireland was in 1870. But I wonder what would follow. Britain has long since forsaken its Christian roots. It is utterly secular. The problem is that in the religious vacuum of the disestablishment of the Church of England, without even the semblance of a Christian basis for society, the door may be open for Islam to impose itself. That possibility is not as far-fetched as it may seem.
I have reported how the bill to disestablish the Church of England bore the number of the Beast, 666. A coincidence, yes, but it serves to remind us of all that is wrong in England and of the dangers that lurk in the way. England's only hope is to cast off the bogus religion of an effete Established Church that is Christian in name only, that is not worthy of the name and that more and more displays on its forehead the mark of the beast, and to return to the genuine Christianity that put the Great in "Great Britain."
