Oh Lord!

Rowan Williams says sharia law in Britain “inevitable”. Websites overflowing. Headlines screaming. “Dreadful error of judgement” says Equality & Human Rights Commission. “British law based on British values for all British people” says Downing Street. Too right. I want to live in a liberal secular democracy under a common law to which we all contribute and all conform. I don’t want religious zealots – Evangelical Christian, Catholic, Muslim, JWs, Jedi Knights – playing pick and mix with the legal system.

I value Rowan’s intellect and his spiritual writing and poetry and all, but what was he thinking of? It was the Cambridge common-room style that staggered me. And the rest of us in the real world of the parishes are once again left to shore up morale. When I’ve asked for leadership to speak out on rural schools we get told we’re being political and we must be “measured” and “balanced” in our response; then we get this nonsense.

I once spoke on the same platform as Rowan Williams. Our career paths diverged after that. I’m sorry he’s ended up in that dead-end job. It was 1983. Cruise missiles were being stationed at Greenham Common and Molesworth. The Church of England General Synod had produced a unilateralist report called “The Church and the Bomb”, and I took on the (unpaid) job of presenting it around the diocese I worked in. We had a CND/Peace Council rally outside the Town Hall in the middle of the city. Rowan was invited to speak, and gave a thoughtful theological reflection on why weapons of mass destruction were immoral, unjust and incompatible with the Christian faith. Everyone listened politely. I didn’t really have a speech. I yelled into the microphone “What do we want?” “NO CRUISE MISSILES!” the crowd yelled back. “When do we want it?” “NOW!” they all shouted. Another bloke led a few choruses of “Maggie, Maggie, Maggie OUT, OUT, OUT!” Everyone went home happy.