The lecture given by the Archbishop of Canterbury in early February, ‘Civil and Religious Law in England’, has stirred a deep controversy which has brought calls for his resignation.
The talk addresses the increasing difficulty over matters of conscience for religious believers in general when faced by the demands of contemporary secular law; things like Christian doctors or nurses who are expected to set aside religious scruples over performing abortions, etc. However, the majority of what he said, being framed in terms of the problems which confront Muslims, means that it comes across first and foremost as an argument for the accommodation of shari’a law into the English legal system. Although Lambeth Palace denied this, the text commends ‘a scheme in which individuals retain the liberty to choose the jurisdiction under which they will seek to resolve certain carefully specified matters’. Williams goes on to admit: ‘It is uncomfortably true that this introduces into our thinking about law what some would see as a “market” element.’
Two monoliths
The problems facing believers living under the monolith of an increasingly secular state are, indeed, real and have become exacerbated by the current government’s pushing through the various newer ‘hatred’ laws.
The re-emergence of heavy shepherds
What would you think if you received a letter from your church leaders that read like this? ‘Are church members …