Whereas the U.S. is famous for its political correctness, England seems comfortable pronouncing value judgments. In the Jane Austen Chawton House museum we visited Tuesday, various exhibits designated some people in Jane Austen’s life as having upstanding character and others as being morally questionable. The interesting thing about this to me is that of the two, there are more people in the U.S. (“p.c.” conscious as it may be) that profess personal faith. Though England’s a part of Europe’s atheist mainstream, the English moral code is so clear it’s become matter of fact and the English people appear satisfied to let custom, and not conviction, guide their actions.
