MetaCatholic

Updated Friday 8 Feb, 10.45

The Internet seems to produce a rush to judgement, and blogging is it’s apotheosis. Today’s reaction to Rowan Williams’ rather academic (and therefore both obscure and nuanced) reflections on Sharia and UK law seem to typify that. See here, here and here (especially the comments on the latter two which exhibit most forms of prejudice known to humanity).

What seems to have been missed are some of the comparisons, I quote from the interview:

It’s not a new problem, not to mention the issues as I mentioned earlier the questions about how the consciences of Catholics Anglicans and others who have difficulty over issues like abortion are accommodated within the Law; so the whole idea that there are perfectly proper ways in which the law of the land pays respect to custom and community; that’s already there.

I think at the moment there’s a great deal of confusion about this; a lot of what’s been written whether it was about the Catholic church adoptions agencies last year, sometimes what’s written about Jewish or Muslim communities; a lot of what’s written suggests that the ideal situation is one in which there is one law and only one law for everybody;

I think those are interesting comparisons: a religiously inspired exemption of conscience (from some 40 years ago) for doctors and nurses not to perform abortions; no religious exemption from last year’s law on adoptions. Looking at the comments on the various stories and postings I can’t help but think that most of those commenting would oppose one law for all in both these instances.

I am, myself, very dubious about the Archbishop’s musings here, although I do think he has identified an “unspeakable about” issue in current thinking that needs to be thought about coherently and consistently. He does sometimes seem oblivious to the impact of his position on his more academic reflections, and badly advised on their media spin. Were it not for people like Peter Akinola of Nigeria and Peter Jensen of Sydney (to say nothing of the Bishop of Rochester) he could appear his own worst enemy.

I shall wait for the full transcript of his remarks, and suggest that others should also.

Update: There is an excellent and helpfully moderate post on this over at Bishop Alan’s Blog. Also well worth reading is Paul Vallely’s reflection on, effectively, why the archbishop’s media officer isn’t up to the job.

John Hobbins posts eirenically but clearly on the new Roman Catholic collect concerning the Jewish people for use on Good Friday. Slightly earlier in the week Ruth Gledhill reported it in the Times, and quite fairly given her past evidence of Zionist sympathies and friendships, though she did perhaps give undue weight to her friend Irene Lancaster who also blogged it, typically seeing it as yet more evidence of anti-Semitism.

It seems to me that this is and will remain a point where Christians and Jews must essentially disagree. It is a quite essential part of Christian belief to hope that all people of every race will acknowledge Jesus as Messiah, Saviour and Lord. From a strictly theological perspective, it would be anti-semitic to exclude the Jewish people from that universal hope. Practically and conceptually many of the ways Christians have sought to express that hope has indeed been anti-semitic, but it need not be so, and John points some of that out.

The Roman Catholic Church tends to be fairly clear, even where others wish it wasn’t. The Church of England’s collect should probably quoted for the sake of comparison. It still has the horizon of a universal hope for Jews as well as Gentiles, is deeply biblical, but somehow manages (in typical Anglican style) to make the whole thing sound far more open and ambiguous.

Let us pray for God’s ancient people, the Jews,
the first to hear his word –
for greater understanding between Christian and Jew
for the removal of our blindness and bitterness of heart
that God will grant us grace to be faithful to his covenant
and to grow in the love of his name.

Silence

Lord, hear us.
Lord, graciously hear us.

Lord God of Abraham,
bless the children of your covenant, both Jew and Christian;
take from us all blindness and bitterness of heart,
and hasten the coming of your kingdom,
when the Gentiles shall be gathered in,
all Israel shall be saved,
and we shall dwell together in mutual love and peace
under the one God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Amen.