The Archbishop's Problem
Amidst all the furore surrounding the rather silly remarks about Sharia Law made by Dr Williams I think the central issue is in danger of being obscured. Perhaps this is not so surprising since we are constantly informed that his remarks were so finely nuanced, representing a degree of sophistication of intellect that the rest of us mere mortals are likely to have missed, it seems possible that the only person who may have fully understood Dr Williams’s argument may have been the Archbishop himself. Obscurantism presented as a virtue.
However I believe the real intent of his remarks was an assault on the growing separation of religion and the state, between religious and secular law. For the last hundred years the Church has faced a loosing battle against the growing secularisation of society, a process, with which, it can be fair to say, the church has never been wholly reconciled. The archbishop seems to have felt that an attack on secularist principles might prove more successful cloaked in the language of multiculturalism. In which case, I am happy to say, he badly miscalculated.
Until the Church of England is disestablished and such nonsense as the blasphemy laws are repealed we will continue to leave ourselves open to such assaults.
However I believe the real intent of his remarks was an assault on the growing separation of religion and the state, between religious and secular law. For the last hundred years the Church has faced a loosing battle against the growing secularisation of society, a process, with which, it can be fair to say, the church has never been wholly reconciled. The archbishop seems to have felt that an attack on secularist principles might prove more successful cloaked in the language of multiculturalism. In which case, I am happy to say, he badly miscalculated.
Until the Church of England is disestablished and such nonsense as the blasphemy laws are repealed we will continue to leave ourselves open to such assaults.
