To: The Arch Bishop of Canterbury
From: Sgt Mom
Re: The discrete attractions of sharia vis a vis English Common Law
1. Having been raised in the relatively intellectual and logic-based tradition of the Lutheran church, the temptation to take a swipe at a church founded on Henry VIII’s scheme to get out of one unrewarding marriage and into another more to his liking is almost overwhelming. The Church of England came about because King H. had the hots for Anne Boleyn and she wasn’t giving him any until he ponied up a ring and a crown and lots of other pretty shiny baubles. Lutherans have the 95 Thesis nailed to a church door, and the C of E… has Henry VIII’s gonads. I admit, Bish – you made a damn good show of it though, especially with the Book of Common Prayer, the King James Bible and all that. Speaking as a wordsmith, it beats Luther’s Small Catechism all hollow. Pure ecclesiastical and literary gold, but lamentably, it looks like your church has been running out of steam ever since.
2. What on earth where you thinking, urging your fellow citizens to acquiesce to the use of sharia law in Britain, as anything other than a small-scale, mutually-agreed-upon-between-the aggrieved parties adjunct, a sort of counseling service? Did you have any idea of the ruckus that would arise, upon suggesting that it was inevitable and by implication a good thing in this pretty, shiny multi-culti 21st century Britain? Do you even, god save us, have any idea that your casually tossed off remarks appeared to approve of grafting an alien sprout onto the tree of common law? An alien and wholly contradictory sprout that no matter how often or how loudly the praises of sharia law are sung by the usual chorus, casual consumers of recent media reports cannot help concluding those places in which sharia law holds sway are violent and benighted hellholes? In the eyes of those innocent of spectacles constructed of industrial-strength rose-colored glass, it is a turd. No amount of gold-plate will make it acceptable, not least, I suspect, to those who have had first-hand experience of it. (Especially those of the female gender.)
3. It is one thing, my good Bish, to discuss theoretical constructs – it is quite another to install them as workable and working systems, when real-world experience of them suggests that the outcome will be something comprehensively different, from what it appeared to be in ones’ airy world of theory and abstraction. See the practice of communism, when tried out in any place you could name.
4. Hoping that this memo will be of assistance to you, in explaining the storm which has descended upon your miter-capped head.
5. Sorry; coming up with an explanation for all those gorgeous but empty church buildings the length and breadth of Britain is more your line of work. Good luck with that.
Sincerely
Sgt Mom
Later:This lovely monologue/rant courtesy of I-don’t-know-who-it’s-a-couple-glasses-of-chablis-into-my-birthday-eve here
Eh - Rantburg, the source of all things sour and sarky
Being a glass half-full sort, I would offer one note of optimism about this subject (on which I find myself agreeing with every last word of your post, incidentally).
We in the UK tend to be fairly slow to anger, and don’t get terribly demonstrative about a lot of things. We also tend to the view that people can pretty much believe or do whatever they like, provided no-one gets hurt and no-one has to change their behaviour because of someone else’s beliefs. This, by and large, works pretty well.
The Archbishop’s remarks, however, probably provoked more direct reaction than any proposal I’ve heard in a very long time, and the reaction has been brutally unanimous - no way, no chance, no how.
Overall, then, I think his intervention might even have been useful in the long term; a neat little reminder to all of us not to sleepwalk down a very dangerous road of believing that different social groups should be able to pick and choose their own laws.
Incidentally, I bumped into the Archbishop in a bookshop in Hay On Wye last year whilst there for the book festival. I’d just come from seeing Richard Dawkins too - one of those days when all’s fun and interesting with the world.
Comment by Al — 20080218 @ 0754
It does rather seem like it was the final straw, didn’t it? Still, the scary thing is that the man seemed to have just walked blindly into it, without a scrap of understanding of WHY it would set off such a reaction. He kind of reminds me of Mr. Magoo in a mitre. And he is in charge of the C of E because….?
Comment by Sgt. Mom — 20080218 @ 1449