Moral Living and Social Justice

In October 2009, some body of MPs (cross-party, of course) vetoed the new Constitution of the Cayman Islands because it said that that British Overseas Territory was a "God-fearing country based on traditional Christian values, tolerant of other religions and beliefs", and spoke of "a country in which religion finds its expression in moral living and social justice". Likewise, the new Constitution of Saint Helena, Ascension Island and Tristan da Cunha was forbidden to express that British Overseas Territory's desire "to continue as communities of tolerance, with respect for government and the law, Christian and family values and protection of the environment".

So how, according to that body of MPs, could the Coronation Service continue to contain the words, spoken by the Archbishop of Canterbury as he hands the Sword of State to the monarch, "With this sword do justice, stop the growth of iniquity, protect the holy Church of God, help and defend widows and orphans, restore the things that are gone to decay, maintain the things that are restored, punish and reform what is amiss and confirm what is in good order"? Of course, it could not. That is the whole point. If being a British Overseas Territory precludes having a specifically Christian basis for the State, then it could not be more obvious what that says about the United Kingdom herself.

Hence a series of recent judgements, culminating, at least so far, in this week's jaw-dropping ruling that Christianity formed no part of the basis of the law. Much has been made by the militant secularist and homosexualist lobbies of the fact that the couple in that case was of West Indian origin, as those against whom there have been a number of such pronouncements from the Bench have been of either Afro-Caribbean or African background. Christianity in Britain is being defined as a black thing, and thus a product of post-War immigration, in the way that Islam in Britain is being defined (not entirely accurately) as a brown thing, and thus a product of post-War immigration.

This may be utterly absurd, although African and Afro-Caribbean observance is the reason why churchgoing is more prevalent in London than in the country at large. But it is also potentially useful. The ferocious anti-Christianity of the senior judiciary, of David Cameron's attempt to redefine marriage as not necessarily the union of one man and one woman (as the Attlee Government's landmark legislation regulating marriage simply presupposed because it was so obvious), of Jo Johnson's campaign to end prayers in the chamber of the House of Commons, and so on, is an attack on Black British culture as the attackers themselves have defined it. It is, in a word, racist. Let's see them get out of that one.