Theo Hobson—The whited sepulchres of Anglicanism
I agree with Richard Harries' defence of faith groups who want to conduct civil partnerships in places of worship. But I really dislike the way he poses as a defender of religious liberty. We Lords-spiritual have no right to oppose them holding civil ceremonies in places of worship, he loftily says: "it would harm no one, and it accords with their deepest religious convictions. Religious freedom is indivisible". This is laughable. For an Anglican bishop to say this is like a Thatcherite saying "compassion must always come first".
The Church of England has many things going for it: it has lovely buildings, lovely music, lovely liturgies, lovely literature, and a lovely habit of theological vagueness. But it does not have the moral high ground in terms of religious liberty. Indeed it is founded on the denial of religious liberty. This is too often obscured by its reputation for "liberalism", which is based in the fact that it is more liberal than certain other churches on certain issues, and manages to find a few nice people to say nice things on Thought for the Day.
According to the vague, lazy orthodoxy about our history, the C of E is deeply entwined in the story of British liberalism. From the time of the first Elizabeth, did this Church not nurture the distinctive English tradition of toleration, pluralism, fair play? Did it not reject the authoritarian ways of another church we won't name, and choose freedom? No, actually. It is truer to say that our tradition of liberty arose in opposition to the established Church.
Read it all.
Filed under: * Anglican - Episcopal • Anglican Provinces • Church of England (CoE) • * Christian Life / Church Life • Church History • * Culture-Watch • Religion & Culture • * International News & Commentary • England / UK
1 Comments
Posted March 8, 2010 at 8:00 am
Posted March 8, 2010 at 8:00 am
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What a list—lovely,lovely, lovely.” Lovely buildings, lovely music, lovely liturgies, lovely literature, lovely theological vagueness.” (Maybe Jesus is the Son of God, our Saviour—maybe he isn’t.)
March 8, 6:33 pm | [comment link]It is wonderful for any church to be so stupefyingly lovely. How much better is lovely doctrinal truth. In fact all those other lovelys don’t mean didlysquat without something called: TRUTH.