According to the Daily Telegraph (a.k.a. Daily Torygraph) the Archbishop of Canterbury has accused the government of treating religious faith as an "eccentricity" practised by "oddities". Dr Rowan Williams said ministers were wrong to think that Christian beliefs were no longer relevant in modern Britain and he criticised Labour for looking at religious faith as a “problem” rather than valuing the contribution it made to society. He added that political leaders should be more open about their beliefs.The BBC asked the following question in the "have your say" page:
Does religion have a part to play in politics?
I am happy to see that the vast majority of respondents think NO, NO and NO! This is a relief.
I checked the to 47 responses and here are the first few, the mot recommended ones:
No and I would go further and say all local authority schools should also be 100% secular. Paul Price, Carmarthen, United Kingdom
Religion and politics should stay separate.
I hate using pain and misery to make a point, but the Church in Ireland shows us the dangers. O.W.It is absolutely right for the Government to ignore religion. This is 2009 - laws should be based on democratic values, not superstition. If you want to see what a society run according to religious rule of law is like you only have to look at Iran. Richard Lewis, Cambridge
Organised religion has caused more war than peace. Lucien Piers
an "eccentricity" practised by "oddities" Sounds spot on to me [paulmathome], London
Already we have the politicians in a so-called 'class war.'
All we need now is for 'faith war' where they needle each other about which religious sect they belong to. NO NO NO to religion in politics! Norman
The first irrational response is 48th in rank:
Strange thing – countries or states that seek to deny Christ normally end up as terrible places to be in [grainsofsand], United KingdomI can imagine what people would reply if the same question was asked in the U.S....
There might be a problem with those who view an internet article (especially those who choose to comment or vote) not being representative of the population. There have been a lot of anti-atheist screeds in mainstream online news publications in the last year and they usually get thrashed by the readers -- I'd imagine for the print version there would be a lot more sympathetic readers.
ReplyDeleteWisely and rationally spoken. But I was feeling optimistic, you know...
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