We are entering a season when we set fire to things: sparklers, fireworks, bonfires, and guys named Guy Fawkes. This is rather bizarre since, erm, Guy Fawkes wasn’t actually burned; he was hung, drawn and quartered, and convicted for being a traitor in service of the Pope. He was not burned as a heretic. (But don’t let that spoil the party.)
I’m not suggesting we get the history right by erecting gallows in town squares on 5 November. That won’t end well. Besides, who doesn’t love a good fire? (Okay, maybe not Greta Thunberg.) The English were certainly partial to a fire, at least until 11 April 1612, when Edward Wightman - essentially a Trinity-denying Anabaptist - became the last man burned for heresy. Should we have a national festival on 11 April where we burn an Edward?
My suggestion is to have the fires on 16 October and remember two guys - or, at least, a Hugh and a Nicholas - since that is the day on which Hugh Latimer and Nicholas Ridley were burned just outside Balliol College, Oxford in 1555.
Western civilisation is floundering and teetering
Are we comfortable in our own skin? How do we feel about being human? If we call ourselves evangelicals, we …