Roger’s Rules

February 7th, 2008 1:50 pm

Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?

A month or two ago I wrote piece in this space on the Archbishop of Canterbury called “Rowan Williams, public embarassment.” That reflection was occasioned by His Grace’s opinion, expressed in the course of an interview with Emel, “The Muslim Lifestyle Magazine,” that “the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.” Obviously, the Archbishop (who once described himself, correctly, as “a hairy leftie”)
meant it to sting (what could be worse for a leftie, hirsute or not, than being “imperial”?). As I pointed out, however, being compared to Imperial Britain would, by any ordinary standard of civilization and achievement, be high praise indeed. Everywhere Britain went, I noted, she “brought the rule of law, better education, better physical infrastructure, better health and hygiene, improved literacy, greater freedom, and greater civility.” Indeed, whenever anyone brings up Imperial Britain, I think of George Santayana’s observation about “The British Character” in his book Soliloquies in England, published in the early 1920s. “What governs the Englishman is his inner atmosphere,” Santayana wrote, “the weather in his soul.”

Instinctively the Englishman is no missionary, no conqueror. He prefers the country to the town, and home to foreign parts. He is rather glad and relieved if only natives will remain natives and strangers strangers, and at a comfortable distance from himself. Yet outwardly he is most hospitable and accepts almost anybody for the time being; he travels and conquers without a settled design, because he has the instinct of exploration. His adventures are all external; they change him so little that he is not afraid of them. He carries his English weather in his heart wherever he goes, and it becomes a cool spot in the desert, and a steady and sane oracle amongst all the deliriums of mankind. Never since the heroic days of Greece has the world had such a sweet, just, boyish master. It will be a black day for the human race when scientific blackguards, conspirators, churls, and fanatics manage to supplant him.

Where is Santayana when you need him? What, I wonder, would he have had to say about Archbishop Williams’s declaration earlier today that the adoption of Islamic Sharia law in Britain is “unavoidable.” In a widely reported lecture on BBC radio 4 the Archbishop called for a “constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law” and said that Britons must “face up to the fact” that some of its citizens do not “relate” to the British legal system. “Constructive accommodation”: let’s see, I guess that is British English for “spineless capitulation”?

And what is all this about Muslim Brits not “relating” to the law? The rule of law is is not a lifestyle choice: it is not something you can opt out of if you happen to have alternative inclinations. “Gee, in my religion, we stone adulteresses to death, so would you mind stepping aside and handing me that pile of rocks?”

The proper answer to such gambits was formulated in the 19th century by General Charles Napier when dealing with sutte, the Indian custom of burning a widow on her husband’s funeral pyre: “You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours.”

Napier flourished in an age of cultural confidence. He was unassailed by the paralyzing multicultural thought that, after all, British civilization was just another civilization and that it only stood to reason that the Indians had their way of dealing with things. He knew that suttee was a disgusting, barbaric practice and he was in India to stamp out such barbarisms and bring the Indians into the modern world. Archbishop Williams seeks instead a “constructive accommodation” with practices that, if they proceed, would destroy everything he, as chief prelate of the Church of England, stands for. Public stupidity is always disagreeable to witness. Public stupidity fired by misplaced self-righteousness and underwritten by obvious cowardice is a positively emetic combination. Henry II may have erred when he raged against Thomas à Becket, Rowan Williams’s illustrious predecessor as Archbishop of Canterbury. I certainly would not wish to have the question “Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?” answered as Henry’s question was answered. But where Becket faithfully served his church and was savagely punished for it, Rowan Williams loses no opportunity to besmirch his Church and is lavishly praised for his perfidy. As I say, for the moment there is nothing at all “unavoidable” about the institution of Sharia law in Britain. All that is necessary to countermand it is a little self-assertion on the part of the British people. Surely the instinct for self-preservation has not been totally eradicated in Britain by the enervating imperatives of political correctness–do I end that sentence with a period or a question mark? It is a mark of how serious things have become that I am no longer certain. The triumph of Islam in Britain is eminently avoidable. But the triumph of civilizational Quislings like Rowan Williams might just change that.

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59 Comments

1. ic:

May be the Supreme Head of that Church? Don’t you miss the days when the first Supreme Head could chop the heretic priest’s head off.

Those days, alas, may come again when the Supreme Head of the Anglican Mosque chop off infidels’ heads for violating the Sharia.

Feb 7, 2008 - 2:48 pm 2. Grace:

This is either stunningly naive or stunningly misguided. In any case, perhaps the Archbishop should look a little more closely into what sharia law holds in store for non-Muslims — HERE and also HERE for example.

I doubt that that bit about fighting against those who don’t believe in Allah until they’re subdued would go over very well.

Then again, what would be the difference? The head of the Anglican Church is apparently subdued already. The world needs men of real courage right now. What a sad thing to hear only from useful idiots instead.

Feb 7, 2008 - 8:40 pm 3. EnglishMan:

Hasn’t this idiot ever heard of the ‘thin end of the wedge’.
If ever a culture took a mile when given an inch, its the supremacist muslims.

Feb 8, 2008 - 4:22 am 4. kevin barry:

The archbishop is a kindly, gentle old imbecile. He represents the absolute worst that England has to offer. Is it any wonder that your nation
is slipping so very quickly into Islamic domination. Oh, by the way, have you named your son Mohammed yet?

Feb 8, 2008 - 5:45 am 5. Mark William Paules:

How did this cleric rise so high in his church without the ability to distinguish between good and evil? One has to conclude that the great edifice of the Anglican Church is today nothing more than a hollow core. Intellectual nihilism in the left has done its work well. What’s remains at the end of the day? NOTHING!

Feb 8, 2008 - 5:45 am 6. Kirk:

This poor individuals behavior is a good example of how strange it looks when someones politics becomes their religion. I’m not sure which constituancy this “Archbishop” represents spiritually : Anglicans or leftist extremists. Every time his words are in the news, he appears to be speaking at odds with his religon or about political matters.

Feb 8, 2008 - 6:22 am 7. gordo:

How did a nut like this get the position of Archbishop? Does he plan on officiating honor killings? Britain and America need to protect its culture not concede it to seventh century pyschopaths. Islam is patient and erodes and corrodes its host culture over time. In this time of terror its time to push back not roll over, these people and their belief system are dangerous. We need to remember that Islam is not one of the world’s great religions, its a cult fabricated by a warmonger. Britain, stand and fight like you used to.

Feb 8, 2008 - 6:26 am 8. Maggie's Farm:

Friday Links

Thoughts about John McCain. As somebody said on the radio, "I would crawl over broken glass to vote for McCain over Hillary Clinton." McCain is not a Conservative ideologue, but he is a Conservative. When it comes to immigration law, I see no Li

Feb 8, 2008 - 6:37 am 9. Don Cox:

This character is reminiscent of the notorious “Red Dean of Canterbury”, Hewlett Johnson, who supported Stalin through thick and thin during the mid 20th century. At least the Dean did not get promoted to Archbishop, but since then the Church of England has shrunk to a mere shadow of its former self, and no doubt there is a shortage of non-idiots.

Where would you find a reasonable, competent man who still believes in a Middle-Eastern religion nowadays?

Feb 8, 2008 - 6:44 am 10. ForNow:

The Brits are going insane and Rowan Williams is not the exception but the pure product of their suicidal society. The denunciations of Williams is to some extent mere face-saving symbolism against the broader trend.

“Multiple wives will mean multiple benefits,” The Telegraph (UK), Feb 3, 2008 (The Brit government has decided.)

“Asian PCs ‘blocking crackdown on honour killings’,” The Daily Mail (UK), Feb 3, 2008 (British police are becoming a tool for Shariah. It’s caused by a combination of political correctness, fear of being branded a racist, and police officers who actually are pro-Shariah.)

“Family of teen Muslim invited men to rape her,” The Times (UK), Feb 3, 2008. (More on the toleration or promotion of Shariah by Brit police and administrative culture.)

“Support for ‘no-go’ bishop after death threats, The Telegraph (UK), Feb 3, 2008 (Whether Bishop Nazir-Ali was exaggerating or not about there being “no-go” areas in Britain for non-Muslims, it’s no exaggeration that he and his family now need police protection because of death threats for his having said it.)

“Study alleges ‘honour killings’ conspiracy,” The Telegraph (UK), Feb 4, 2008. (From the article: “Whole communities are involved in assisting and covering up “honour violence” in Britain, a new study says. Informal networks of taxi drivers, councillors and sometimes even police officers track down and return women who try to escape, researchers claim.”

“Female Muslim medics ‘disobey hygiene rules’,” The Telegraph (UK), Feb 3, 2008. (Political correctness, Shariah, & MRSA, Clostridium difficile, etc. Guess what the Islamic Medical Association is demanding.)

Feb 8, 2008 - 6:54 am 11. SJ Reidhead:

The thinking world is just discovering what those of us who are Episcopalians have known for quite some time. This man is completely incompetent. This is just the tip of the iceberg with this man. What I find so remarkable is his complete acceptance of the barbarism of Sharia, but he is allowing the Episcopal church to be destroyed over intolerance of homosexuality.

He seems to have some irrational vendetta against the misc. gay priests and bishop here in the US, but accepts Sharia. So do the African Anglican bishops who so completely control him.

Go figure?

SJR
The Pink Flamingo

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:23 am 12. Josh:

This loon is really the Archbishop of nothing. Christainity is all but dead in England anyway. No offense to you few Brits who still practice the faith. That’s why Muslims love it there. There aren’t many of those annoying Christians who have been battling them for 1300 years. I now understand why the Anglicans are closing up shop with leaders like this gutless wonder. Don’t be suprised when you start hearing more and more Bitish accents in the good ole USA.

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:25 am 13. Fat Man:

Sharia is not only antiquated and inflexible, it is a violent attack on human freedom and dignity, and a desecration of God’s holy name. It is to be dreaded like an outbreak of the smallpox. Any society that wants to retain a commitment to civilization must reject it absolutely and in all of its manifestations.

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:29 am 14. Anonymous:

There are three kinds of national tolerance–one of them is good and the other two are bad.

The good one is the tolerance born of strength which happens when Western nations open the door to immigrants from all over the world with the confident demand that they subordinate themselves to the law and tradition of the land.

Then there’s the the bad tolerance born of weakness, which we see in spades in England these days. This is a tolerance that subordinates law and tradition for fear or reprisals. Rowan Williams is the poster child for this tolerance.

Finally there’s the bad tolerance born of stupidity. This is the tolerance that looks at the inflow of Muslims into the West with a dumb smile, believing that Muslims have come to America to put aside their strict Muslim beliefs to live in the land of MTV and MySpace.

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:36 am 15. Dr. Filthy McNasty:

Dear SJR:

There are so many misconceptions in that contraption you wrote it would take a 1,000 words just to keep the wheels from flying off.

No one has the time to write or read such a thing, so suffice it to say that you don’t know what you are talking about.

DFM

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:41 am 16. J. Kactuz:

The archbishop is not an embarrasmment, he is a cheerleader for oppression and violence.

Notice that he (and most of the media, academia, politicians, and other liberal clergy) never dare to raise their voices against the evil that Muslims do (because they are not real Muslims, or they have highjacked it, or whatever the ‘excuse of the day’ is). Islam is off limits. They don’t care about the victims of Islamic hate, violence and oppression.

As others have pointed out here, everywhere we see Islam, we see violence, discrimination and people wanting special priviledges. We see people telling lies:
http://www.kactuzkid.com/lies.html
We see people that want to end our freedoms
http://www.kactuzkid.com/liberty.html

Believe me, Muslims are not honest about their religion. They follow a man that raided, murdered, tortured, enslaved and raped. These things are found in their own traditions, written by his friends and followers, and are considered reliable. Go figure.
Mohammad is considered to be a great moral example.

This may, maybe, who knows, explain why Islam is what it is and why Islamic societies are that they are.

The future will not be nice. I blame people like Mr. Williams for supporting Islamic hate and violence. Be sure that he will also blame us for every evil thing Muslims do, because “we need to be more understanding.”

Kactuz

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:49 am 17. Sam:

Unfortunately, it is indeed too late for England, short of a full scale revolution.

They were brought to this state by something that is essentially “communism’s revenge,” and that is the process that can be collectively called “cultural Marxism”.

The will and mores of the people which were the central reason for the success of the British were gradually gnawed away at and corrupted over a period of decades. The effort has been wildly successful to the point where many actually think it would be ‘justice’ for themselves to fade into history.

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:53 am 18. Michael Lang:

The Archbishop is just continuing that fine British invention called appeasement.

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:11 am 19. paul sorene:

The “Englishman” is Welsh. But he is pillock and should be sacked for his singling out of Muslims for special attention…

http://www.anorak.co.uk/war-on-terror/180413.html

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:29 am 20. Dan Collins:

The Archmoonbat of Wankerbury?

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:33 am 21. Other Sam:

I’m thinking that that Britain’s cultural and political leaders arrived at that point long ago. I really believe that cultural and political Marxists are trying to punish Anglo-Saxon Britain for the “evils” of an empire that no longer exists. Call it “White Guilt” or whatever you will. It’s craven and disgusting. We can deal with other cultures and races fairly and justly without encouraging their worst elements to vent their grievances. And we can accommodate their differences without committing cultural suicide.

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:34 am 22. O'Connor:

Just yesterday, and quiet by accident I came across ‘The Poems of Rowan Williams’ (2002), which I will read for clues to the supreme idiocy of this latest Rationalist churchman. I wonder where was the public concern and outrage I felt on the day he was appointed? There was some, to be sure, but the British public has shown an alarming capacity to be asleep at the wheel.

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:44 am 23. freespeecher:

Surely if Sharia law is implemented, even if only in a few areas such as family law, it will not be long before Muslims begin to demand the abolition of alcohol. Will that finally cause the Brits to rebel against their dhimmitude?

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:48 am 24. ELC:

Archbishop Williams is merely the nominal successor of St. Thomas, who was a Catholic bishop in communion with the Holy See.

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:06 am 25. gbrown:

This is as foolish as the Episcopal priest in Seattle who claims that she is both Christian and Muslim. http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2003751274_redding17m.html

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:09 am 26. Thomas Collins:

Thank God (so to speak) for hirsute lefties such as Williams. The Williams types allow the rest of us to see clearly (if we have any vision at all) to what depths multiculturalism is leading the West. In a sense, I feel bad for Williams types. Their vision of a multicultural society (peaceful coexistence while everyone makes nice to each other in the therapeutic state) is not a sustainable form of interaction among humans. The closest humans have come to taming their tendencies towards fickleness, tyranny and barbarism is in Western liberal (”liberal” in the classical liberal sense)democracies. These democracies are woefully imperfect. These imperfections allow Williams types to attempt to demoralize citizens of Western democracies with a utopian vision of a better world. But their utopian vision simply leads to tyranny or barbarism. Our woefully imperfect democracies are the best we can do on earth. Let’s hope more of our political, social and spiritual leaders wake up to this reality.

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:09 am 27. David Thomson:

There is little doubt but that someone like the loathsome David Duke will eventually take advantage of this fantastic opportunity. Nature abhors a vacuum. If sensible people don’t resolve the issue of Islamic nihilists—the crazies will make their move.

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:17 am 28. Morton Doodslag:

Sadly, as moronic as this gentleman is, his prognostication about the inevitability of Sharia is simply hindsight.

We have suicidally allowed Muslims into the West without understanding the basis of their hideous religion. For example, once the Muslims establish themselves in an infidel area, they consider the ground underneath them to belong to Islam. Permanently. A Muslim community represents a fait accompli, a triumph for Islam, a conquest won.

Now if we set about dislodging them from our soil before they become even more entrenched, then there is hope that we can stop their Jihad. If we don’t muster the will, fueled first by an understanding of their Islamic intent to destroy us and replace our society with Islam — then we are condemning our children to live in Beirut, or Sderot, or anyplace where Muslims rampage for Islam.

Already Paris and London have “no-go zones” where Muslims have established tiny proto-Beiruts and proto-Sderots. They are growing organically without any impediment — and we are shrinking into ourselves without understanding that we are already under assault. The first Muslim that set foot on our soil was waging war. Now he has been joined by tens of millions of fellow Muslims, and completely with our own suicidal connivance. It is insane. It must stop.

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:24 am 29. Blog-o-Fascists:

King for a day

Power Line

<img alt=”RowanWilliamsPA2603_228×300.jpg” src=”http://www.powerlineblog.com/RowanWilliamsPA2603_228×300.jpg” width=”228″ height…

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:30 am 30. Charlie:

Rowan says what he does because he is keenly aware that what he says is inconsequential. If it were otherwise, he might have a thought or two before he opened his yap.

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:52 am 31. scott:

The best thing that could happen to Christianity in England would be the disestablishment of the Church of England…and abolish the monarchy,since the heir is a crypto-Muslim

Feb 8, 2008 - 10:16 am 32. Dr. Filthy McNasty:

Let me share a conversation I had with an English woman in Chicago this week. She moved to America bemoaning the loss of old England’s traditions, swearing that she could never go back to the place.

Two minutes into chatting about this she somehow wound the conversation around to gay marriage and wanted to know how on earth I could be against having my government redefine marriage so to strip it of any connection with men and women making families.

I leaned forward a bit, gave her a good look in the eye, and said “Hmmm….”

Feb 8, 2008 - 10:25 am 33. Mike O'Malley:

Don Cox asks: “Where would you find a reasonable, competent man who still believes in a Middle-Eastern religion nowadays?

Across the Tiber River from Rev. Williams.

Feb 8, 2008 - 11:01 am 34. Liam Hodder:

‘Instinctively the Englishman is no…conqueror.’

Nice try, Rog! You might even get away with it if there were no Irish in the world to testify to the absurdity of such a sentiment. I agree that the English have some fine qualities but a moral repugnance – or even a lofty indifference – to occupying another country against the wishes of the vast majority of its inhabitants is not one of them. They have always indeed proved an indefatigable enemy whatever the justice of their cause, a characteristic of which W.S. Churchill was the last great exemplar. I’m not a fan of Old Winnie but I must say I’d feel a damn sight better and safer if he was still in No. 10, chomping cigars and knocking back single malts.

In respect of His Grace I agree with everything you say – and then some. The Philosophical/Cultural Cringe of the European elites will bring about the ruin of a civilisation to which the aforesaid English have made a truly magnificent contribution.

When the end comes we’ll find that William Wordsworth has supplied our epitaph:

‘Men are we and must grieve when even the shade of that which once was great has passed away.’

Feb 8, 2008 - 11:30 am 35. R.C.:

Let’s be clear here: Not all Muslims are barbaric; only those who are faithful to the orthodox teachings of Islam are.

Not all men are fit to live in (or be citizens of) a free society. Those who voluntarily embrace teachings (whether Mao’s, or Hitler’s, or Muhammad’s) which instruct followers to initiate force against others in order to deprive them of their freedoms are intrinsically not immigrants but invaders; not citizens but saboteurs. As such they should be denied entry to free societies, and, so far as is practical, expelled when found therein.

Not all civilizations and moral codes are sufficiently civilized to merit our praise and comradeship. The American and the Australian, the British and the French, the post-WWII Japanese and the South Korean: These societies differ but uniformly attain that level of civility which merits the respect due to equals.

The dog’s breakfast that is the Arab world, on the other hand, rises scarcely a hair’s-breadth above the tribalism of central Africa or the Amazon basin, and while the people enslaved therein merit our pity and our civility and our kindness when we deal with them as fellow men, they should rightfully encounter scorn and negation when they approach us as representatives or evangelists of evil ideologies and practices.

This is moral clarity. It is what Rowan Williams so entirely lacks. It is what the majority of the political class of the United Kingdom apparently lacks.

There may still be time to find and sack the university professors and schoolmasters and bureaucrats who’ve drummed politically-correct (and civilizationally-suicidal) nonsense into the heads of each of the last few generations of leaders. If this happens, the United Kingdom may yet pull back from the brink.

Alternatively, a surge of American-style evangelical Christianity could help counteract the septic sermons of Rowan Williams-like quislings. For, while I find some of its trappings distasteful, I would far rather live in a society where gays and philanderers were annoyingly and cloyingly exhorted to come to Jesus than in one where they were stoned to death upon discovery. And for whatever reason, those mildly nekulturny Americans have retained the kind of civilizational confidence and moral clarity which has apparently bled out of Britain in the last hundred years.

Failing either the sacking of those who poison the young against their homeland, or a robust Christianity sufficient to counter the apathetic malaise of post-modernity, we the free peoples of Europe face extinction.

So much the worse for us. So much the worse for the future of the world.

Feb 8, 2008 - 12:21 pm 36. Classical Values:

some bigots are more equal

With Romney out of the race, today’s Wall Street Journal discusses a delicate issue, and cites interesting study of political prejudices relating to religion, sex, and race: Mitt Romney’s campaign for the presidency brought more attention to the Mormon…

Feb 8, 2008 - 1:20 pm 37. ticker:

Sam – “The will and mores of the people which were the central reason for the success of the British were gradually gnawed away at and corrupted over a period of decades. The effort has been wildly successful to the point where many actually think it would be ‘justice’ for themselves to fade into history.”

The brain-dead, vacuous apathy of the British is more extreme even than that of Americans. There seems to be no British national will to resist the nonsense you describe. As you say, the population has completely bought into it and is just waiting like dumb cattle at the slaughterhouse for the final shotgun shell through the forehead.

Much of this is the fault of the elderly baby-boomers who are in power in all parts of society. They nurture self-flattering ideas of how cool they are because they’re so “mellow” about every destructive, idiotic idea that militant socialist or ethnic groups propose. And as long as they can keep consuming on a massive scale they don’t really care about anything, including the shattered society they leave in their wake. Die, boomers, die.

Feb 8, 2008 - 1:32 pm 38. Winds of Change.NET:

UFOs over Britain: more ominous than you think

The Telegraph reports that reports of UFO sightings over Britain have risen greatly. The Ministry of Defence… … has opened up its own “X-Files” for 2007, revealing 135 UFO sightings from across the UK. If…

Feb 8, 2008 - 1:38 pm 39. JimBob:

I shook my head when I heard that the Queen had appointed Williams to be AoC. I had heard of his reputation from friend. After this latest statement I can only wonder what she must think of her choice. How truly sad for a great nation.

Feb 8, 2008 - 1:45 pm 40. Sue:

Is there perhaps a way we can see that this odius individual is sent to live in Iran or Saudi Arabia long enough for him to get a “taste” of sharia law? Talk about an inbecile tinfoil hatted leftist loonie!!

Feb 8, 2008 - 2:30 pm 41. R. Woods:

The photograph of Mr. Rowan “the beared old leftie” as he described himself reminds me of an old derlict man pushing a shopping cart with all his worldly belongings, everything he considers of value. He evidently has given up believing that everything the British created to obtain their way of life is of any value.

Feb 8, 2008 - 2:53 pm 42. Jamie:

So the Anglican Church and the Episcopal Church in America, divided as they are over actively homosexual priests, are pretty much exactly the same in their stubborn belief that “inclusiveness” and an utter unwillingness to exercise judgment are synonyms for Christian charity. Tolerance is what liberal pluralist societies must exhibit; utter unwillingness to exercise judgment is going to kill ‘em, just as it perverts a religion.

Feb 8, 2008 - 3:52 pm 43. Jim C.:

This is so odd. Becket defended a “two laws” principle (since then rightly rejected) and was martyred for it. Rowan defends it and this might prevent his martyrdom by fanatical Muslims.

Feb 8, 2008 - 3:55 pm 44. James Lewis:

Rowan makes me ashamed to call myself an Anglican. This apostate needs to resign immediately or be expelled.

Feb 8, 2008 - 4:32 pm 45. John Carpenter:

The British people are being led to the slaughter by their elites. This is a conscious policy to facilitate the destruction of British and European culture. The hour draws near when it will be too late. It is time to stand up and say enough is enough. Now.

Feb 8, 2008 - 7:59 pm 46. Kelly R.:

Thomas a’ Becket was William’s predessessor. But it is also important to note that St. Thomas a’ Becket was Archbishop of Canterbury in the Roman Catholic Church; not the Church of England. A very important distinction.

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:09 pm 47. NightFire:

Rowan Willaims has gone from being a public embarrassment to a public menace.

Feb 8, 2008 - 8:32 pm 48. john:

I heard this news from the Archbishop here in Texas and was amazed that any Christian leader,
nor any British leader would dare say such a thing.

And I thought the political correct idiots were all over here.

Thank you for your column. I will sleep a little better tonight.

Feb 8, 2008 - 9:58 pm 49. Nate Lord:

Are U.S. Episcopalians who now say they are subject to the jurisdiction of Anglican bishops elsewhere going to follow Rowan Williams on partial sharia legalization? Which is worse: a gay Episcopal bishop, a female Presiding Bishop, or female priests on the one hand and sharia on the other? I know some female Episcopal priests who are sounder in the mind than some male ones. The female priest in Seattle who is now also a muslim poses an interesting problem: I’ll bet that a priest who starts handling poisonous snakes during the Eucharist will very quickly hear from his or her bishop.
Have the Unitarian-Universalists incorporated sharia advocates into their “broad church” behaviors? I have not read of any such happening.
In fairness to the Archbishop he may advocate the kind of sharia recognition in law that India accords its Muslims (or that Israel does)–NOT stoning, not criminal law enforcement but what we call “family law”. That is bad enough. Apostasy is one of the greatest civil rights, and no civilized society should interfere with it by allowing the law to enforce violation of the prohibition of it by any religion.

Feb 8, 2008 - 10:57 pm 50. Headspace and Timing v2.0:

Who will rid us of

Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?

Feb 9, 2008 - 1:21 am 51. Headspace and Timing v2.0:

Who will rid us of

Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?

Feb 9, 2008 - 1:25 am 52. Classical Values:

Selective veiling of free speech?

I’m a bit concerned about the new dean at Bryn Mawr College: An internationally known scholar of Islamic studies whose expertise is in the Quran and relations between Islam and Christianity was selected as the eighth president of Bryn Mawr…

Feb 9, 2008 - 7:09 am 53. Alice C. Linsley:

Dr. Peter Toon offers this assessment of +Rowan Williams’ recent public statement about Sharia Law in the UK: “We can say things in the family circle that are not appropriately said at the Town Hall Meeting. The Rector can say things to the Church Vestry that are not appropriately part of the announcements on Sunday. The academic can propose ideas and policies in the Senior Common Room that are not suitable for a public lecture. A parent does not speak to the five year old child in the same way as to a teenager. Human beings have long been aware that not every thought, good or bad, in the mind requires expression in words in any company on any occasion. We are to discriminate between what to say, when to say it, how to say it, where to say it and to whom to say it.

In his tenure as Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan has from time to time made public statements in such areas as sexuality, international politics and American foreign policy, that are perfectly rational in themselves if delivered to friends in an Oxford Common Room; but, with an attentive media and the Web, are read by many in politically populist or common sense way. That is, any subtleties or sub-themes are missed and his statements with little context are sent into the world to be understood at one level only, the crudest one.

With this experience under his belt, it is amazing that Rowan went a few days ago before the legal establishment in England and argued that it was time to allow the use of Muslim Sharia Law within British Law, just as Orthodox Jewish Law is allowed in certain areas. All perfectly reasonable and reflecting an appreciation of the powerful traditions of Islam, but a position which is a minority position in Church and State. Further, the Archbishop was not speaking to friends inside Lambeth Palace but publicly, with the press there to listen and report. Further, he was speaking within a country where tensions between Muslim areas and neighborhoods around them are ripe for explosion. Then also he was speaking as the leader of the bishops of the Anglican Family, and many of them live in situations where they face all kinds of difficulties and problems caused by the local imposition of Sharia Law.

Rowan did not have to make this speech and say what he did. By this one speech, Rowan has lost much support in Britain, the Church of England, and the Anglican Communion of Churches. It appears that he is not able to discriminate between when to share his (complex) thoughts with his friends and when to share them with the world. This failure to discriminate would seen to disqualify him from high office. Regrettably, this business casts another cloud over the forthcoming Lambeth Conference, weakening his leadership and making it now very difficult to persuade the Nigerian Bishops to attend!

Oh how very, very sad! More chastisement of the Lord upon the Anglican Family, already in such pain and confusion.”

Feb 9, 2008 - 9:53 pm 54. Fenrisulven:

Don’t be suprised when you start hearing more and more Bitish accents in the good ole USA.

All of you are welcome here. Even the socialists.

We are your children, your nation’s legacy. It greatly saddens me to see you come to this. I wish there was a way we could peel Britain away from the EU and Islam, and bring you under US rule. Of course it will never happen, and you are too proud to become a 51st state of the union.

Feb 10, 2008 - 4:47 am 55. An_American_Werewolf_in_Austin:

Words that come to mind when I think of Rowan Williams: foolish, appeaser, unprincipled, misguided, myopic, spineless, morally bankrupt, unworthy, pusillanimous, etc., etc., etc.

Feb 10, 2008 - 2:33 pm 56. John Frary:

It’s the combination of guilty disparagement of the British imperial achievement with respectful deference to Sharia which strikes me most forcefully.

Aside from that, one wonders whether this troublesome priest thinks the Anglican Church has anything to set beside Sharia to improve the English legal system.

Feb 11, 2008 - 12:17 pm 57. the monster from polaris:

How does one depose an archbishop?

Feb 12, 2008 - 5:50 am 58. Bill:

I am equally upset about His Disgrace Rowan Williams in the matters of both his Sharia statement and his countenancing of homosexuals.

It is time for the U.K. to disestablish the Church of England because its episcopacy is bringing shame upon the country, and has apparently abandoned the teachings of Christ and his apostles.

If the Church of England survives at all it should truly broaden, not to include atheists, heathens, and sexual deviants, but to represent all churches who believe in the morality of the Bible and the divinity of Jesus Christ. This is clear enough; both Old and New Testaments excoriate homosexuality, as well as fornication and adultery.

Perhaps there should be some ground rules: All bishops and C of E officers should believe in Jesus Christ and support the consistent morality taught in the criptures and summed up in the Ten Commandments. The Queen and any future sovereign should vow to uphold Christianity as taught by Christ – or they should resign or be debarred from the monarchy.

Jun 16, 2008 - 5:48 pm 59. Roger’s Rules » Can Britain Survive multiculturalism?:

[...] with family and marital arguments and to regulate finance,” while the Primate of All England called for a “constructive accommodation with some aspects of Muslim law.” He also notes that British [...]

Jul 30, 2008 - 11:17 am