Can anything good come out of Canterbury? Apparently so. The way that these laws have been ignored by human rights advocates in the name of respect for other cultures is nothing short of criminal -- so bravo, Williams. That is, as far as he goes. From AFP, with thanks to Sr. Soph:
LONDON - Rowan Williams, the spiritual leader of the world’s Anglicans, has urged Pakistani President Pervez Musharraf to review the country’s blasphemy laws, the BBC reported.Archbishop of Canterbury Williams was in mainly Muslim Pakistan to see the aftermath of the massive South Asian earthquake.
The Church of England leader said he feared the law was being used to “settle private scores”.
Pakistan’s blasphemy law says that desecrating the Quran, the Muslim holy book, is punishable by death. Christians have argued that it is used as an excuse to attack them.
Earlier this month, a Muslim mob in eastern Pakistan burnt down churches and ransacked a school over allegations that a Christian had burnt the Quran.
Williams said the laws were a worry “not so much about the idea of a law against blasphemy as about a law whose penalty is so severe and whose practice gives so many loopholes to allow people to settle private scores by appealing to blasphemy laws”, the BBC reported Wednesday.
Ah: the expected dhimmitude returns. Williams is not so much upset by blasphemy laws, even if they target Christians, as he is that they are used to "settle private scores." And the Anglican rush into relativism and irrelevance continues.
The black Anglicans in England, especially those from Africa who have their own immediate experience with Islam, and of course the former Muslims (such as Patrick Sookhdeo) who have become Anglicans, are unwilling to indulge in the nonsense of the self-flagellating and embarrassed white English Anglican clergy who have proved putty -- even silly putty -- in Muslim hands.
One suspects that if Rowan Williams has begun to take even this weak, ill-articulated, and entirely unsatisfactory interest in Muslim persecution of Christians in Pakistan, that perhaps these other Anglicans, who see no need to mince words and who are not fooled by sub rosa appeals to white guilt over "colonialism," may yet save the soul of Anglicanism.
Judging from the above, Rowan Williams, of the are-you-running-with-me-Jesus school of bathetic and sentimental and thoroughly up-to-date-with-the-times Christianity, is not so much against blasphemy laws that severely punish non-Muslims, as he is against the misuse of those laws to settle private scores where no such "blasphemy" may exist. Otherwise, nothing wrong, in his view, with those blasphemy laws.
Less here than meets the eye.
As I read this I was thinking that the Arch-druid must have been listening to Revd Dr Sookhdeo at last. Either him or the Archbishop of York, Dr Sentamu. Both of whom have seen evil up close and personal.
I am not the only Anglican here who admires the work of the Barnabas Fund, and I come relativly recently to their support. But we are being joined by others, and we listen to the stories of Muslim converts, and eyes are opening. I just hope it is in time.
Bravo Rowan Willims! At last a man with ghuts in the Church! When the Christian Bishops Council wants to fall at the feet of muslims to pardon chritians,who made them angry enough to carry out 7/7 in London!!,here is a spined leader .He should be made The ArchBishop of Canterbury. I tell you, these christians of colour-whether black or brown or yellow will only uphold the christian religion in the west.They will fight for this faith and ready to give their life-unlike a white christians, who are, now a days gone weak in their faith, and culture, and are seekers of a selfish happy life,without bothering about the lurking danger to their culture,faith and security they enjoy now.
Ah, that weak Dhimmi Rowan Williams should have DEMANDED that SOMETHING BE DONE NOW ABOUT THE PLIGHT OF CHRISTIANS AND OTHER MINORITIES IN PAKISTAN. A good shepherd defends his flock : not abandons it. In my opinion, Williams is one of the feeble minded clery giving Anglicans a bad
name.
Agree with Granny Weatherwax, their only salvation [I'm talking about falling numbers of Anglicans] is their black brothers who show the faith and courage of early Christians.