BBC News - Lord Carey attacks PM over Christian 'support': Lord Carey, former Archbishop of Canterbury and pastoral head of the world-wide Anglican Communion, seems to have found a new role for himself since retiring - that of Winger in Chief for Christianity and Defender of Christian Privilege.
In an attack on Prime Minister David Cameron's government today he accused them of "aiding and abetting" aggressive secularisation - which is a euphemism of course for allowing other groups, particularly non-believers, to have a say and to be listened to when they complain about being dictated to by Christians. For "aggressive secularisation" read "successfully getting a non-Christian point of view heard", something which Carey feels infringes the Christian right to hold a monopoly of opinion on all matters social and moral.
Carey quoted a ComRes poll which showed that "more than two-thirds of Christians feel that they are part of a 'persecuted minority'", which is not the same thing as actually being a persecuted minority but never-the-less contains the interesting admission that Christians actually are now a minority in the UK, and yet they still demand their traditional privileges and complain of persecution when they lose them.
Since retiring from the post of Archbishop of Canterbury, Carey has, amongst other things:
- Opposed same sex marriage, though he supported same sex civil partnerships.
- Complained about English and European courts deciding that Christians are expected to comply with laws even when they disagree with them.
- Complained that Christians do not have the right to use their faith as an excuse for persecuting others by denial of supply of goods and services.
- Defended the arms trade.
- Defended a company active in Israeli-occupied Palestinian territory.
The Archbishop of Canterbury traditionally crowns the British Head of State in a Christian coronation ceremony which confirms the Head of State as head of the Anglican Church, hence establishing the Anglican Church as the official state church and Christianity as the official religion of the UK.The UK parliament opens with Christian prayers each day it is in session.
The default oaths given by jurors and witnesses in English courts is a Christian one unless specifically requested otherwise.
The Secretary of State for Local Government recently used his executive power to amend the Local Government Act to make it legal for Local Councils to include prayers on their agenda, after this was ruled illegal by the courts. This means that non-believers who fail to attend prayers can be declared not to have attended the full meeting, giving their constituents the impression that they have not attended as many council meetings as they should have.
Religious apologists complain bitterly that atheists and secularists are aggressive and hostile in their criticism of them. I always say: look, when you guys were in charge, you didn’t argue with us, you just burnt us at the stake. Now what we’re doing is, we’re presenting you with some arguments and some challenging questions, and you complain.
The Anglican and Catholic Churches run many of our Schools, although they are financed by the state, hence tax-payers are financing what is, in effect, a privileged recruiting opportunity, providing the church with access to vulnerable and impressionable minds in a captive setting not afforded to groups presenting alternative views, and associating Christian belief with authority figures and official sanction.A.C. Grayling
Churches and religious institutions are regarded as charities in the UK and so pay no tax on their income and can claim exemption from VAT on their purchases. Promotion of their faith and using it to recruit members is considered a legitimate use of charitable funds, which thus receives a hidden tax-payers' subsidy.
The National Health Service, funded by taxation, bears the cost of providing chaplaincy services and thus represents a hidden tax-payers' subsidy from funds ostensibly raised for health care, for religion, mainly Christian.
Strangely, one never hears Carey, nor any other religious cleric, complain about this arrogant imposition of their superstition and superstition-based laws on those of us who have neither requested nor want it.
Ironically, Lord Carey's whinge comes in the middle of a four-day celebration of a plagiarised Christian festival during which banks, schools, Government and Local Authority services will be closed, essential services will be reduced to a minimal safe level and publically-owned radio and television services will broadcast programmes will be devoted to Christian themes, usually presenting the Christian myth of Jesus as real history, the disgusting idea of human blood sacrifice as a good thing and the repugnant superstition that all humans are innately evil and need 'cleansing' of sin by shedding the blood of an innocent person, by magic spells cast by clerics, by chanting ritual words and by making special hand movement.
In other words, that we need clerics like Lord Carey to save us from the god they invented in order to give them something to save us from.
For those Christians who feel aggrieved and want to be on guard against these aggressive secularists, see How To Recognise A Militant Secularist - A 12-Point Guide.
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