Did you notice...

...that I've not mentioned the Archbishop of Canterbury and the recent ridiculous furore over the speech that he gave to the law society as part of a series entitled 'Islam and the Law' for which he has been criticised for talking about 'Sharia law'?

Just thought I'd mention it.

Now I wonder if I should file this under 'stupid people who don't know what they are talking about'? Or whether that might sound a bit judgemental....?

Comments

Tom said…
I don't know anything about the Archbishop, but I do know that Archbishops should have superpowers. Good titles warrant superpowers.

On a different note, thanks for the comment on my post. I appreciate the thought you put into it, and I don't think you waffled too much (which you accused yourself of).
12:43 am
Nick Payne said…
I've also left the topic alone... and am merely soaking up the reaction from various news sources. Many people have accused him of being liberal... but it's been suggested by some of the more intelectual media that he's actually acting out of conservatism - foreseeing times ahead when the Church is going to find it's doctrines challenged by state law... and trying to carve out some room for exceptions to the rule... citing Islam as an example.

I wasn't there so I can't truly comment (amazing how so many who weren't, feel fit to do so).

I do know people who are involved in missionary work out in Islamic countries... and one of them is so concerned about potential repercussions of that work, that they have stopped blogging (in order to protect the identity of people they care about).

I think I'm inclined to agree with the Archbishop's own self-assessment... that his wording may have been clumsy... (by invoking the words Sharia Law, it invites speculation on a wide spectrum of criteria from country to country... and understandably people who have suffered at the hands of the harshest Shariah regimes are going to feel really kicked in the teeth... but it's not them who have got angry about it interestingly). Lest we forget though, the archbishop is only human eh?.

It must be one of the hardest jobs in the world - being the highest ranking priest in a state religion... it's often a highwire act dance between church and state opinion... and you are always going to upset people - tough break.

Interestingly, students who met with Rowan Williams to engage him in fierce debate during a recent radio interview... actually found themselves charmed by his genuine warmth and compassion for them all as individuals.

My greatest concern has been revealed not in what Rowan Williams said... but rather because of what followed it.

People talk of the radicalization and polarization of Islam... but it seems obvious that there is a counter radicalization going on... in the Church. It is not being led by faith though... I think people with political agendas are coming in and using people's fear to deceive them. I think we have more to worry from them, than we do from anything the archbishop has said.

Maybe I'm way off base with all this.. by all means feel free to tell me as much. A lot of this is thinking out loud.

Hope the cumbersome stuff at church is waning off.

God bless

N
8:48 pm
Dr.John said…
NO I hadn't even noticed that you said nothing. But then I hadn't heard anything about the problem until you said nothing.
7:03 pm
Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trying to connect the dots, unnecessarily

Image
Another sermon - as seems to be the way of this blog at present! Life is busy and complicated, and good, and bad, and exciting, and challenging, and (in short) not conducive to getting Blog posts written! So, here's my thought for today taken from these passages (Click for details): Exodus 16:1–5, 9–15,  Psalm 78;18–29 Mt 13.1–9 Grace and Meaning In the words of St Paul, or perhaps St John, or maybe St George, or even St Ringo “When I was younger, so much younger than today.” Ah, sorry, couldn’t resist!  No, it’s not a tubby boy story – but just a general reflection that today’s story from the book of Exodus used to cause me great consternation.  Or at least was one of those parts of Scripture that didn’t seem to fit… I knew the story, the mythological story I am now convinced, of the temptations in the wilderness when Jesus proclaims, quoting Deuteronomy 6 ‘you shall not put the Lord your God to the test’. As I moved into the Anglican Church and ...
Read more

A Sermon which upset someone

So, I'm not a theological conservative.  That probably comes across in pretty much everything I write, but I thought I should say it.  I believe myself to be orthodox, however, and hold to those things which the Church expresses in the catholic creeds.  I also have a relatively 'high' theology regarding the inspiration of Scripture. But I am not a Biblical literalist, nor do I hold to a doctrine of the infallibility of Scripture. I can't.  The Bible is too rich, too deep, too difficult, too flawed for that.  And by flawed I mean I understand it to be the record of human beings trying to make sense of God at work.  It has the breath of the Spirit blowing through it's words and on every page, but when we try and make sense of God there is a chance we will go awry.... 'Hey lets condemn (and or murder) pretty much everyone who isn't in our tribe, that's obviously what God wants' kind of awry.  And if we study this book carefully then we see that ideas ...
Read more