Rowan Williams: Fixation with Gay Rights, Race and Feminism Threatens Society

THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: A fixation with gay rights, feminism and separate racial identities is threatening to “fragment” British society, the Archbishop of Canterbury has claimed.

Dr Rowan Williams warned that identity had become a “slippery” word and that, while much had been achieved for minority groups, it was time to focus on the common good.

He also attacked a culture of dependence on welfare handouts, which he said was harmful to society, in an address to members of the Welsh Assembly in Cardiff.

Addressing a group of teenagers during the visit, he also spoke about the possibility that Britain could break apart as Scottish and Welsh nationalism grows in importance.

Dr Williams, who is stepping down as leader of the Anglican Communion later this year, has made a series of outspoken interventions since announcing his resignation.

He signalled last week that he plans to use his final months in office to speak out forcefully on issues which on which he feels passionate. » | John Bingham | Religious Affairs Editor | Tuesday, March 27, 2012

Without Christianity, Our Society Is Doomed
THE TELEGRAPH: Canon Michael Ainsworth, a priest and colleague of mine just a couple of miles from my rectory in the City of London, was recently attacked in his churchyard by three youths. Michael suffered two black eyes, cuts and bruises. He was taken into hospital and his wife Janina, also a priest, said: "It's obvious that the attack on Michael does contain a religious element." It certainly is obvious: his attackers shouted, "You f------ priest!" as they beat him up.

This is the second time that Michael's church has been attacked. After the Good Friday service last year, louts threw bricks through the windows. A parishioner, Susan Crocker, said: "It's not out of the blue - it's a recurrent problem."

Well, it's clear that the yobs who attacked Michael were Muslims. To their credit, the local Muslim leaders have tacitly admitted this by publicly deploring the crime. So why were the police, and much of the media, so vague as to call these thugs "Asians"? If I smashed the windows of a Brick Lane curry house and gave the manager two black eyes, you can be sure the police and the papers wouldn't describe me as a "European".

Of course the authorities excuse their evasiveness by saying it's to preserve good racial and community relationships, forgetting that it was Michael's attackers who first damaged these relationships and that appeasement always encourages worse violence in the long run.

This attack was one small example of the persecution being endured by the Church worldwide. On four continents Islamic militants are attacking and sometimes murdering Christians and burning down churches. Why do the archbishops and bishops not lead mass Christian demonstrations against these atrocities? Instead, we have to observe the filigree intelligence of the Archbishop of Canterbury as it operates on the precise relation between English law and some "unavoidable" accommodation with sharia. He, with his whole hierarchy, strains at gnats and swallows camels.

Meanwhile, a Nigerian archbishop said that Dr Williams's words hardly made things better for Christians persecuted under sharia in his country. "Their lives," he said, "are at the very least unbearable." If Dr Williams is so intelligent, shouldn't he have known beforehand that his remarks would only give encouragement to the fanatics? If I tried to walk down the main street in Riyadh wearing my clerical collar, the religious police would throw me into jail. In Britain we allow Muslims to build huge mosques in prominent places such as Regent's Park. What does this say about the relationship between Christianity and Islam worldwide? Without Christianity, our society is doomed >>> By Peter Mullen | 21/03/2008

THE TELEGRAPH:
Christianophobia comes to the East End By Damian Thompson

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