Religious Courts
I find it a little hard to get excited by a religious leader's plans for religious courts. That his church is an official State church of course gives it a national significance, and as such the most important lesson of Williams' speech is that the Chuch of England must be in a sense privatised - this blog has no truck with antidisestablishmentarianism. The best time for that will perhaps be when the Queen dies.As to the merits of Williams' speech, there seems to be a lot of confusion. The most likely view is that he is proposing something similar to Israel's system of religious courts (for Jews, Muslims and Christians). Insofar as these are bound by the national law (and in this case Israel's Supreme Court), their juridistion is limited, and there is always an alternative option, it doesn't seem to be disastrous, although apparently and not surprisingly it is said in marital disputes it favours men (although I am not sure if this is true across all religions).
Personally I think it all sounds a lot of baloney, and not being religious I can't really understand the appeal. As to why Williams proposed it, I tend somewhat to Jamie's view here that it's a strike on behalf of Religion that he believes will help his particular strand in the long run.
Labels: Relgion
posted by Matthew @ 2/10/2008 10:51:00 AM
Comments: 5
