Quaker values and today’s society

Matt Winkless asks how Quaker vales can interact with today's celebrity-obsessed culture

by Matt Winkless 25th February 2010

In the last few weeks, news of John Terry’s infidelity has spread across our front and back pages. It is ironic, since in 2009 he had been named ‘Dad of the Year’ after a Daddies Sauce survey.  It seems to be impossible to escape the ‘cult of celebrity’, with gossip magazines outnumbering specialist magazines.  On the very same day as Fabio Capello removed Terry’s captaincy a language became extinct (in the Andaman Islands near India), two bombs exploded in Karachi, Pakistan, killing twenty-two, and Uganda’s Deputy Foreign Minister admitted the proposed anti-homosexuality bill was being reviewed. Yet none of these things were as widely publicised. Surely our priorities have gone askew somewhere?