Is Rowan Williams up to something?

Editorial by Terry Sanderson

The inscrutable Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, gave a speech earlier this week about “Religious Hatred and Religious Offence”. We are left, as usual, floundering to understand what it means. Read it here (you’ll need several hours and a packet of Anadin).

The terribly erudite Archbishop re-rehearses the arguments that have been raging within society for the past five years or so about how much protection religion should have against criticism and even abuse. There is nothing new in what he says, although he does seem to want to take the argument right back to the beginning and start again.

He goes on about the ‘sacred’ and how it should be protected from attack by those who don’t accept it, don’t agree with it and even find it ludicrous. He says that secularists lack imagination and the ability to put themselves into the shoes of believers who consider religion to be an inseparable part of their being. Insult my religion and you insult me, type of thing.

The Archbishop agrees that blasphemy in English common law is now a dead duck and must go, but he is not at all convinced that there should be nothing to defend the faithful from hurt feelings. He is not yet convinced that the Religious and Racial Hatred Act will silence ferocious critics of faith.

Pardon me for being paranoid, but what is the Archbishop up to? Does he just want people to be a bit more respectful of believers and their beliefs? Or does he want the law to force them to be respectful? As we know, the Government has promised that it will abolish the blasphemy law and is, at present, consulting the Church of England about it. The Archbishop has made clear that he will not stand in the way of the abolition – but is his speech an indication that the “consultation” has now turned into a negotiation about what will go in the blasphemy law’s place?

Time will tell, but don’t be surprised if the battle for free speech has to start all over again.