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 Last week the Archbishop of Canterbury and leader of the Anglican Community, Rowan Williams, created a furore by suggesting that aspects of Sharia law might be integrated into the British legal system. He suggested it might be appropriate to consider the lives and culture of British Muslims and to respect that in certain situations, such as marriage and divorce, Sharia law might be more suitable than British jurisprudence.
The angry response, with many calls for his resignation, accused him of a flaky and dangerous multiculturalism that betrayed both Christian and British values. The fact that Sharia law includes stoning adulterers and amputating the limbs of thieves did not help the Archbishop's argument.
The most positive interpretation is that he has a generous spirit and he seeks to include all the citizens of the United Kingdom. This, in fact, is precisely how he justified himself. "I believe quite strongly," he said, "that it is not inappropriate for a pastor of the Church of England to address issues around the perceived concerns of other religious communities and to try and bring them into better public focus."
But at the heart of what he has said there is the possibility of a terrible error. All that he says about Sharia law is based in the assumption that there is validity in law that is legitimated by religious belief. The Archbishop's approach is sympathetic to the idea that religious groups may, rightly, have their own laws based in their sacred texts and customs.
This might be a good idea if all religions were capable of giving good law. Human sacrifice is the part of some religious rites. Is that to be respected? Female circumcision - is that to be tolerated because some God so decrees it? Hindu widows to be burned alive on their husbands' funeral pyres? And so on.
It is only too obvious that laws based on the beliefs and creeds of religious organisations can be dangerous. Whatever the Deity says is Law, is law! Where is the room for enquiry, discussion and development?
Good law has developed over centuries through the attempt of the best human minds and hearts to understand, interpret and apply a sense of what is called Natural Justice. What is Natural Justice and how can it be applied in society so as to create the good life for all people? Good law is developed as people explore with their hearts and intellects how the highest understanding of Justice can manifest in the paradoxical realities of a human community. This exploration is led by feelings, instincts and rational deliberations that are guided by an aspiration to bring harmony and safety.
There is an ever-developing and evolving process of law. Stockades and public hangings have been discarded. The imprisonment of children and floggings have passed. Law develops. Good practice becomes established and then evolves.
Contemporary spirituality has brought us at least one useful insight: Organised religion with its beliefs is different from the individual and personal experience of the wonder and beauty of existence. This experience of wonder belongs naturally to everyone and is the source of human spirituality. This is very different from the dogmas of some religion.
From Lao Tse to Thomas Jefferson, it has been recognised that it is this natural sense of connection with the wonder of an interdependent universe that underlies our sense of Natural Justice.
The last centuries have seen democratic governments and their legal systems become liberated from the constraints of dictators, monarchs and religions. The children, the women and the men who live in our societies are protected by this collective sense of Natural Justice, and the police, laws and courts that - for better or worse - seek to implement it.
Rowan Williams' positive acknowledgment of Shariah law speaks to a mindset that is centuries out of date. Maybe he Is nostalgic for a time when the Church genuinely influenced or made Law. If so, his benevolent, white bearded, image - an academic Santa Claus - may belie something less benign, more dangerous, a genuine patriarch haunted by memories of when organised faiths had genuine legal power.
The women treated as chattels. The exorcised children. The young people forced into marriages. All our fellows need to be embraced by the very best of modern society, especially our law, and not left prey to the religious beliefs and laws of beards who justify their prejudices and bullying with the language of religion.
If the priests of traditional faiths want to participate in the free process of British law, they are welcomed. But if they do not want to participate, they must not be given the support which may help them drag their communities and our fellows into the past. This is not fair on the powerless. It is also dangerous for the progress and cohesion of our society.
The beauty and wonder that pervades the natural world also manifests itself in the well-meaning and careful deliberations that build a good legal system - in which free men and women creatively seek to establish harmony, justice and peace. I would like to see Rowan Williams, leader of England's church, asserting this progressive view and not making dangerous compromises.
All my love
William
www.williambloom.com
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26th - 31st May
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