Religion

Ben Macintyre, in The Times, writes today about the religious objectors to Hitler's reign of terror, how they opposed him not so much physically, like von Stauffenberg when he attempted with others to assassinate him, but morally. In particular he mentions Helmut von Moltke who with other Christian intellectuals planned for the aftermath of the war and on how "to exorcise the sin of Nazism". Earlier in the article he writes this: "In our secular age, religious conviction is deeply unfashionable".
A couple of weeks ago in the same newspaper Matthew Parris vented his spleen at the what he considered to be the nonsensical carting about the country of the relics of St. Therese of Lisieux: what on earth were people doing believing that these few bones could in some magical, or miraculous, way bring about some kind of change for the better in their lives? A few weeks later when he was in Malawi he witnessed the charitable work of British Christians helping the poor of that backward country. He had, he said, received many letters criticising his article on St. Therese and now, not in so much an apology, but a realisation that, however much people were deluded in believing in God, he had to admit that their work in his name couldn't be gainsaid.
I have just been reading an article in an encyclopedia about the slavetrade and how it eventually was stopped by the work of Charles Fox and the Quakers together with others of Christian faith, like Wiliam Wilberforce; the British trade came to an end in 1833, the year of Wilberforce's death.
Like Matthew Parris I find it difficult to believe in supernatural phenomena but am heartened by the work of those who do. Yet, if God is good, as is maintained by the believers of all religions, why did he wait so long for the slave trade, for example, to carry on before intervening, through people like Wilberfioorce, to put an end to it. After all, it wasn't years but centuries.
There has been a good deal of talk about the empty plinth in Trafalgar Square and who should occupy it; I think William Wilberforce would be a very good choice even though I don't follow his beliefs.
In the film about him a couple of years ago a parliamentarian stood up and said something to the effect that they were always praising great men of war but here at last was man of peace who deserved the greatest praise.
Wilberforce would stand on the now empty plinth as a sort of counterbalance to that of Nelson who stands high above, diagonally opposite.