Talk Islam

thabet

  • 09:52:55 am on May 25, 2008 | # | |
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    Reports say Michael Nazir-Ali wants the Church to do more to convert Muslims in Britain.

    Just one more reason to disestablish the Church.

     

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Comments

  • aziz 1:29 pm on May 25, 2008 | #

    I think this is a reasonable position for an archbishop to take. In many ways it’s good to see Christianity in England be more vibrant. The are certainly welcome to try and poach believers from us if they want - whether they succeed is of course another matter. I think that the statement that England is based on Christianity may be hsistorically true, but not really relevant to the modern state, so in one sense Nazir-Ali is engaging in some nostalgia for a UK that ceased to exist. Christendom is over.

  • thabet 1:42 pm on May 25, 2008 | #

    Of course he is welcome to express that view. But I don’t want him using a state-backed institution to do so.

    We need to disestablish the church — then he, and others, can engage in all the open proselytizing activities they want through their own efforts.

  • aziz 1:51 pm on May 25, 2008 | #

    I agree, but I also think that the Church being “state-backed” means less today than it used to mean. I don’t think that proposing something concrete - like a tax-free fund established from the queen’s coffers to distribute the Bible in Arabic outside mosques or paying teh salaries of full time missionaries in the London metro - is going to be tenable. I doubt that Nazir-Ali would be as foolish to even make such a suggestion. He’s basically trying to rally his troops but there are practical limits to how many, ahem, divisions he commands.

  • razib 3:11 pm on May 25, 2008 | #

    what establishment mean besides symbolism as a practical matter? i know that the church doesn’t get direct gov. subsidies….

  • thabet 12:06 am on May 26, 2008 | #

    But symbolism matters in religion. A lot.

    My major gripe is that there are bishops in the House of Lords. They can vote on matters of public importance and choose to support the status quo.

    For this reason alone (although there are others too), there needs to be a complete and formal severance of Church and state (Crown).

    This separation would also allow bishops to speak more freely (e.g. Williams).

    I admit there might be downsides (e.g. takeover of the Church by right-wing groups), but I then am not an Anglican.

    (Side note: I suppose one could argue slow, piecemeal, disestablishment has been taking place for the last 150 years.)

  • razib 12:21 am on May 26, 2008 | #

    you need a republic. the problem (re: symbolism) is the incremental nature of the british polity; so that england and scotland have established churches which go back to the compromises between the crown and coventrymen in the 1640s ;-)

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