Malcolm Muggeridge

At present I am reading Richard Ingrams’ biography of Malcolm Muggeridge. One of the striking things it reveals is the antipathy to Christianity by the left-wing literary elite who were part of Muggeridge’s life. ‘… supporters of the Soviet Government welcomed its strenuous efforts to impose atheism and eradicate Christianity almost more than anything else that had been done.’ As A. J. P. Taylor wrote to Muggeridge, ‘… think of the fact that a new generation is growing up free from Christianity – that’s something worthwhile.’ It is the successors of that generation who are largely responsible for quite a measure of success in eradicating Christianity from Great Britain. One reason for our interest in Muggeridge is that we knew his eldest son Leonard well – a gentle, humble Christian man, a member of the Christian Brethren who studied at London Bible College in the early 1950’s, now into his eighties. He became a believer long before his father’s turn to Roman Catholicism.