Watching the coronation of King Charles yesterday, I was struck by several things: the first is just the absurdity of it all. The pomp and circumstance was so excessive, it really should have been like a mockumentary. A farce. I mean, Charles looked old and bemused, and occasionally uncomfortable, and I kept having to wonder what century we’re living in.
The second thing that struck me was the degree that Jesus Christ and the Church of England were interwoven into all of this. Obviously, the whole thing was taking place in a church, Westminster Abbey. But what seems to get lost — and the same thing is true for anything involving the Pope and the Catholic Church — is that Jesus was anti-imperial. He was (to the degree that we can determine this) a radical little wandering anarchist who was trying to throw off the yoke of Rome.
Anyway, how can anyone take all of this nonsense seriously? First of all, there is no Jesus, he died over 2000 years ago and despite what people say, he isn’t coming back. Nor is he in “heaven,” which is a child’s concept. And he isn’t blessing the coronation of King Charles, which would have been antithetical to everything that he (apparently) stood for. It’s just absurd, and yet here we have millions of people — and lest we forget, plenty of counter-protestors and anti-monarchists — taking this completely seriously and getting emotional about it and treating this as if this were an appropriate event in the 21st century.
