The Church, the dimwits and the atheists

It used to be said of a politician that he approached every problem with an open mouth, but it seems the same can be said of bishops, too. The former Archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Carey, such a dithering disaster in his job you would have thought he would have retired quietly into private life, has made a thought-free statement about blasphemy. He is accompanied by Lord Harries, the former Bishop of Oxford (of course) together with an assortment of lefties and atheists including Ricky Gervais, Richard Dawkins and Peter Tatchell. They write in the Telegraph in support of an amendment to the Criminal Justice Bill by Evan Harris, Frank Dobson and David Wilshire, the three great statesmen.

Their case is that the blasphemy laws serve no useful purpose "The ancient common law of blasphemous libel purports to protect beliefs rather than people or communities. Most religious commentators are of the view that the Almighty does not need the "protection" of such a law," .....”It is discriminatory in that it only covers attacks on Christianity and Church of England tenets”.

The purpose the blasphemy law serves is this. Britain is one of the few countries in the world with an established religion. The others are usually Islamic. France and Italy, for example, despite being Catholic, draw clear lines between Church and State. We do not – you can say what you like (within the other laws) about Islam and Judaism. Another example of this is that Carey and Harries get to sit in the House of Lords (although I think Harries may be there because he was a Blair toady).

As we moved against multiculturalism in the last couple of years, people even on the left were saying that there must be some Britishness that the immigrants should be able to cling to; if you like, you can say they came here because of that Britishness and we shouldn’t suddenly take it away for fear they might not like it. They should accept the whole package. One aspect of that Britishness is the fact we have an established church and religion, which you don’t have to join but which is there at all times.

Now I am a disestablishmentarian. I believe that it is not in the interests of the Church to be associated with the government and it was one of my wishes for 2008 that it should take steps to disestablish itself. But the call should come from the Church. And the Church’s position in our society should not be chipped away, it should be reconsidered as a whole, as an important constitutional element.

This recent blast is the last call of the manic multiculturalists and they should be exposed for what they are.