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Stone Circle Controversy in Loughborough

Submitted by Andy B on Friday, 22 March 2002  Page Views: 2174

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I think this is an old story but interesting nonetheless:

Mark writes: The Loughborough Council of Faith planned to mark the millennium by erecting a stone circle to commemorate reli-gious unity within the town. The circle was to consist of nine stones, one for each of the religious traditions represented in Loughborough.

With the help of the Charnwood Borough Council, a site had been identified for the monument on a local park. A quarry company was approached and agreed to donate nine stones, each weighing two tonnes and measuring 2m by I m. At the request of the local authority the Loughborough Council of Faiths then submitted a planning application for the erection of the stone circle. It was at this point that the shit hit the fan. On being informed of the application, local residents decided that this "mini-Stonehenge", as they called it, would attract weirdoes such as Pagans, Druids and Witches who would arrive in buses and sell drugs to their children. This hysteria was flamed by fundamentalist Christians within the local community, who bombarded the press with letters claiming that the erection of the circle would represent an insult to Christianity and would be a work of evil. The debate ran and ran - in the Loughborough Echo it twice occupied the lead story spot on the front page. A letter writing campaign to the Borough Council by members of some of the local Churches resulted in hundreds of letters of objection to the plan. Working with members of other religions who are also committed to inter-faith dialogue, it is sometimes easy to forget how much intolerance and prejudice still exists. As secretary of the Loughborough Council of Faiths, my name. was on the planning application, so I personally came in for much of the abuse thrown about by the fundamentalist Christians, which I found upsetting. Faced with such a barrage of hostility the Loughborough Council of Faiths has decided that there obviously isn't the religious tolerance within the town that they believed there was and have, therefore, decided it would be inappropriate to erect a monument commemorating religious unity.

Source: East Midlands PF
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"Stone Circle Controversy in Loughborough" | Login/Create an Account | 3 News and Comments
  
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Re: Stone Circle Controversy in Loughborough by templar on Thursday, 21 October 2004
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At risk of weighing into a religious debate and suffering appropriate amounts of persecution, how tolerant is Christianity, or indeed other religions?

Christianity teaches an exclusive path to heaven, which excludes all other paths and has, at its core, an evangelistic 'raison d'etre'. This necessarily excludes all other forms of belief and, in my opinion, this exclusivity is shown clearly by the by the many variants of the religion that exist - and their absolute belief in their particular variant.

"A good Christian died and went to heaven; St Peter was showing him around when they reached a particular area where a high wall surrounded an enclosed area. The Christian asked what was behind the wall.

St Peter said 'Please keep quiet, we keep the Methodists back there; they think they're the only ones up here.'"
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Re: Stone Circle Controversy in Loughborough by Anonymous on Thursday, 21 October 2004
I found this story amusing in that the planners wanted to do something that would represent unity and all the different groups could do was fight amongst themselves - its a sad view of our so called civilised 20th century society!
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Re: Stone Circle Controversy in Loughborough by kooljeff on Saturday, 30 March 2002
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The thing that always grabs me abouth these kind of stories is that it is nearly always the "fundamentalist" Christians who do not seem to understand their own religion. Christianity, by its very teachings and its teacher (That's Jesus in case you were wondering Mr. Fundamentalist), is a tolerant and forgiving religion. For a religion that battled through intolerance and persecution before being adopted by the Roman Empire, the current practitioners seem awfully adept at being mean spirited, intolerant and unforgiving. The key fact that they forget is that Christianity is NOT the native religion of the British Isles, and the English were pagan. Anyway I digress - fun though, isn't it, pointing out uncomfortable FACTS?

I have to say it was an inventive way to bring together the various aspects of faith in the Loughborough area. As with all things inventive and simple the reactionary elements seem hell-bent on stamping out that sort of thing. You know, like crucifying anyone that gets in the way of the established religion or government.

As for the great middle classes and their worries about undesireables descending on their community ready to corrupt their children and sell them drugs, what can I say? Sometimes it so absurd that it IS funny and sad at the same time. Still they are setting their children a good example by being biased, ill-informed, quick to jump on a bandwagon and find a scapegoat - oh and be led up the garden path by any apparent good intentions (or is that a path leading somewhere else entirely?)

I bet their children know where to get drugs in the local community without waiting for the intervention of "pagans, druids and witches..." Heaven forbid any real nasty, intolerant and disruptive religious types should rear their ugly heads in Loughborough!

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