Preaching and unbelief

John McDade

01 July 2025, The Tablet

In a culture increasingly indifferent to religious belief, John McDade explores the roots of modern unbelief through the lens of a disinterested churchgoer and urges a more empathetic and dialogical approach to faith in a secular age

I love the story of a parish in Scotland that one Sunday had a guest preacher who gave a powerful sermon on sin and repentance. The congregation was visibly moved as they remembered how greatly they had sinned and how rich was God’s mercy – all except for one man who sat through the sermon with his arms folded across his chest, looking uninterested and certainly unmoved. As the congregation left after the service, a church official stopped the man and said, ‘I hope you don’t mind my asking you, but you didn’t seem to be as affected by the sermon as other members of the congregation, and I wondered if there was any reason for this.’ The man replied, ‘Oh, it’s very simple, I’m not from this parish.’

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