Has the Archbishop gone bonkers?
Forgive the stark clarity of my headline, but sometimes when writing about the Archbishop of Canterbury, clarity is what is needed. I ask this of readers here, because this is the question put to me time after time this afternoon by incredulous commentators of every variety, stunned into blunt expression by the Archbishop of Canterbury's uncharacteristically clear comments on Sharia in Britain. The Archbishop believes adopting aspects of sharia law into British law would help maintain social cohesion.
The funny thing is that only a few days ago this 'liberal' Archbishop was calling for "thoughtless and, even if unintentionally, cruel styles of speaking and acting” to be made a criminal offence.
Now we may all have an idea of what that would mean in practice. But you can't get much more thoughtless than the Mad Monk's latest. Even John Humphrys might not be too keen on Sharia, though the extra wives might come in handy. What's Hebrew for "chutzpah" again ?
UPDATE - I'm sorry to say that Rasputin is an alumnus of my mother's old school, Dynevor - as was Spencer Davis (this video marking the first recorded appearance of the fuzzbox) - whose mum I think worked in the Lewis Lewis department store. By strange chance, the last I heard of very wonderful singer Steve Winwood - what a voice for a teenager - he was playing the church organ on Sundays not so very far from where I live.
15 comments:
I don't know what the man's taking about. It's already happened - the DWP have just legalised polygamy.
I feel for the CofE, I really do. Mr Williams job is quite simple - to promote Christianity. When it comes to doing something as elementary as opposing the abomination of homosexuality, he falls over, when it comes to pointing out the errors of Mohammedanism, he fails.
If he was a shop assistant, he would have been out on his ear years ago.
The Littlejohn Syndrome
A long but illuminating article. An excerpt:
... The Littlejohn Syndrome isn’t confined to journalists of a certain outlook. It’s just that the symptoms are more pronounced there than anywhere else. Political correctness has arrived at its logical conclusion - a parody of itself that only the wilfully blind fail to see. It defies common sense. Few want to be associated with it yet all must offer public support for the thinking that brought it about or suffer the consequences.
But although it’s become acceptable to criticise political correctness the establishment is working flat out to ensure that criticism of the equality idea remains strictly taboo. 21st Century Britain is founded on universal equality and the establishment has no choice but to defend it to the death.
The absurdities of pc are impossible to ignore because they intrude on every aspect of our lives. Even the establishment must acknowledge their existence and criticises their excess. Yet criticism of pc cannot help but lead to criticism of the equality cult. ...
While I'm sure Dr Williams was ill advised to talk about this subject at all - given the likely reaction - what he said, whether in the interview or the lecture, was actually and typically of him, sensible and thoughtful.
It's crap journalism distorting what he said that really annoys me about this story - or non story.
What he was talking about - and the Sharia issue was only an illustration - was the way that actively secular parliaments are creating legal structures that religious people - Christian, Jewish, Moslem and other, are finding it increasingly difficult to accept. It's far less a problem for the CofE than for many others - particularly the Roman Catholics, but it is an impressive indication of his view of his role as chief of established "religion" in the UK that he makes the point on behalf of all religions.
I a know few people who know Rowan well. All regard him as outstanding intellectually and spiritually. The three times I have heard him preach I've been sure we could not find a pastor better equipped to lead the church.
I understand your point, Matt. He puts his stuff out in pretty densely layered text, hedged with caveats and subclauses. It's not a simple view.
On the other hand, he's apparently an intelligent man. If he realised how this would sound and wanted to go ahead anyway, that's one thing. I may disagree but at least he knows what he's doing.
If he didn't and is genuinely surprised by the outrage, he's not really worldly enough to lead the church, if that makes sense. His judgement must be called into question.
Matt
If I understand your point, he was standing up for the religious against secular democracy. Fair point, so did he stick up for the rights of Roman Catholic adoption agencies?
If your analysis is correct there should be plenty of evidence of him supporting the rights of Christian traditionalists against "actively secular parliaments". I don't believe this evidence exists because, however carefully he crafts his words, his agenda is not a pure as you make out.
Your're all being a bit too nice (bloody white liberals). The bloke should be strung up for treason.
What we could really do with to get the ball rolling is a John Felton moment. Felton stabbed Charles I's favourite to death in 1628. In many ways the current regime is similar to Charles' ramshackle Royal government, not least in the way in which it foisted a deeply unpopular religious policy upon the nation. Nothing like as bad as unwanted and illegitmate mass immigration and multi-culturalism of course, but it was quite sufficient to drive a popular revolt.
Maybe some enraged Evangelical will do the deed on Williamson. that would be a very great service to the nation.
Rowan Williams, with a freshly hennaed beard, today welcomed the opportunity for interfaith dialogue with the unveiling of a minaret adjacent to St Paul's cathedral. "This fine domed building should, in a multi-faith society, have multiple uses - promoting community cohesion" said Williams.
When it comes to the Spencer Davis Group, I think you mean this video.
mattlondon is right - Williams is trying to defend religion against secularism and sees Muslims as his natural allies.
His enemy's enemy is his friend...a dangerous assumption, but that is what I think this is about, not dhimmitude, even though that is where this might eventually go.
William D. Rubinstein - professor of modern history at the University of Wales-Aberystwyth - argues that with his political pronouncements Dr Rowan Williams follows in the footsteps of a long tradition of left-wing clerics in the Church of England A New "Red Dean of Canterbury"?
... Dr Rowan Williams follows in the footsteps of a long tradition of left-wing clerics in the Church of England, perhaps best exemplified by Rev. Hewlett Johnson, the Red Dean of Canterbury. The major difference today, argues Prof. Rubinstein, is that the likes of Hewlett Johnson never rose above the "middle management" of the Church of England - Rowan Williams has risen to the top of it. ...
"His enemy's enemy is his friend...a dangerous assumption, but that is what I think this is about, not dhimmitude, even though that is where this might eventually go."
He's a bloody Dhimmi idiot. In the interview the stupid old sod says he can't understand why Muslims in Pakistan find it necessary to persecute his co-religionists, the fool - the pathetic worm.
He is a fool, a dhimmi, and a traitor.
We need a John Felton, an enraged Evangelical perhaps.
Though maybe if one day we have a proper Parliament he can served as Laud was, his head severed from from his shoulders
It's easy to see how Archbishop Dhimmi's ancestors ended up in Wales(= Anglo-Saxon word for "foreigner" in their own land). Dhimmi must have the continuing loser thread running through his DNA. Maybe he is a genetic descendent of Vortigern who invited in the Anglo-Saxons to do the jobs the Romano-Brits wouldn't, with the result that they lost the majority of the Island, including the most fertile bits.
Of course there is a lot to be said for Anglo-Saxons and nothing for Muslim "inbreds", as the Independent suprisingly describes them this morning. Though Dhimmi likens them to the good samaritan and finds their servile crouching submission most commendable.
We wouldn't want the likes of Dhimmi to repeat the trick, unfortunately they are well on the way to doing just that, with their damned "decency" and their handwringing, heart on the sleeve, brains up the arse, consciences.
The bloke should be strung up for treason.
Hooray for defending British values by hanging people who say things we don't like.
The good farmer does seem tremendously keen on hanging people he disagrees with - I've crossed pitchforks with him on that before.
I reckon shooting that cad Troy unhinged him somewhat - and then seeing that parvenu Gabriel Oak snaffling the lovely Bathsheba pushed him over the edge.
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