Posted on 05/27/2006 4:21:23 PM PDT by hiho hiho
The Prince of Wales cannot defend all faiths because the differences between them makes such a position untenable, a senior Anglican bishop has said.
The Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, said all faiths could not be defended because of serious differences between various religions.
He said Prince Charles would be obliged to take an oath to defend the Christian church if he succeeded to the throne.
Dr Nazir-Ali has also warned against "multi-faith mish-mash" in the UK.
He told BBC Radio 4's Today programme the monarchy and the legal system had both emerged from the Judeo-Christian ethic.
'Values come from the Bible'
Born a Muslim in Pakistan, Dr Nazir-Ali said: "All our values come ultimately from the Bible.
"People of other faiths recognise this and they are not often the ones asking for a multi-faith mish-mash. They recognise the value of Britain being a Christian country."
The Prince of Wales first expressed a wish to become "Defender of Faith" rather than "Defender of the Faith" in an interview in 1994.
He suggested the title held by all British monarchs since Henry VIII implied they would protect only Christians.
Dr Nazir-Ali said he would have no issue with the prince wanting to uphold the freedom of people of every faith.
He added: "But you can't defend every faith, because there are very serious differences among them."
'Secularisers'
Dr Nazir-Ali blamed "secularisers" for creating pressure to remove the distinctively Christian character from places like hospital chapels.
Speaking about a specific example of such a trend, he said: "The people it does offend are the secularisers who want to level us down to a lowest common denominator, so that faith doesn't make any impact on society whatsoever."
Several other prominent figures in the Church of England have also expressed concerns about the erosion of Christianity in public life.
The Archbishop of York, John Sentamu, has called for the British people to remember their Christian heritage.
Meanwhile, former Archbishop Dr George Carey has said he has concerns a minority in leadership want to privatise religion.
Good for Dr. Nazir-Ali.
how wonderful and risky of Dr. Nazir-Ali; hope he doesn't become target of some nut's jihad.
Uhhh ... the faith (Christianity,) not the faithful.
That's nailing it. Western secularisers have been out to destroy Christianity's influence, it's too judgemental, particularly toward homosexuals. You don't find anything in Hindu or Muslim majority countries to compare to the Western anti-Christian secularisers.
"...called for the British people to remember their Christian heritage."
What an utterly limp-wristed, milquetoast comment from a clergyman.
What then need to hear is something along the lines of, "Repent or Perish!".
"What an utterly limp-wristed, milquetoast comment from a clergyman.
What then need to hear is something along the lines of, "Repent or Perish!"."
Good luck with that. That strain of British Christianity died around 1850. Mainstream Britain turned a deaf ear to the biblical warnings looooong ago.
Traditional Anglican ping, continued in memory of its founder Arlin Adams. << He suggested the title held by all British monarchs since Henry VIII implied they would protect only Christians. >>
The bastard's mad.
Fortunately so are all of his sometime to be subjects, so none will notice.
Meanwhile "The Faith" that the British monarch defends is specifically the Holy, Catholic and Apostolic [Anglican] Church of England of which the monarch is the titular head.
Christianity has done pretty darned well these 2000 odd years and will continue to despite that dopes like Charly Battenberg Windsor get to stuff around with bits of it now and again.
Meanwhile, before Batty Charly gets his paws on it, in any given week/month/year approximately ten times more people regularly attend mosque in London than regularly attend Church of England services.
My Friend, you certainly do have a way with words!
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