The sheer objectionable nature of a church whose doctrine was whatever
the Crown, and so eventually the Crown in Parliament, said that it was at the
given time, has been an enormous force for the creation in this country of a
pluralistic society, and thus by necessity of a representative democratic
political system.
Without it, there would have been neither the Nonconformist Conscience, because there would have been no Nonconformists, nor Catholic Emancipation, because Rome really was a long way away in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so that some accommodation really would have been reached by those who still felt themselves Catholics, as if feelings mattered here, and who would consequently have had no need of Emancipation in 1829.
Those agitating for disestablishment wish the State to repudiate its basis in Christianity, the basis of the most articulate and coherent objections to this Government's callous austerity programme. That agitation must be resisted without any compromise whatever.
Without it, there would have been neither the Nonconformist Conscience, because there would have been no Nonconformists, nor Catholic Emancipation, because Rome really was a long way away in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, so that some accommodation really would have been reached by those who still felt themselves Catholics, as if feelings mattered here, and who would consequently have had no need of Emancipation in 1829.
Those agitating for disestablishment wish the State to repudiate its basis in Christianity, the basis of the most articulate and coherent objections to this Government's callous austerity programme. That agitation must be resisted without any compromise whatever.
I apologize for not grappling with the substance of the interesting argument, bur the view of the Anglican Church is out of date by a couple of centuries. Starting with the Scottish Episcopal Church, you've had churches in the Anglican Communion that are whose doctrine is not whatever the crown-in-parliament thinks it should be.
ReplyDeleteThis is not about the wider the Anglican Communion. The position of the Church of England is exactly as I set out here.
ReplyDelete