The Leader has refused to countenance constitutional reforms lifting formal and very real disabilities from members of the Catholic faith in England, presumably because "it hath been found by experience that it is inconsistent with the safety and welfare of this protestant kingdom to be governed by a papist prince" .
Though he does seem to want to replace the rest of the Bill of Rights of 1689 and precursor of the Constitution of the United States with his very own Bill of Rights and Duties. Perhaps he means to make a continuity and renewal claim by keeping in the bits about keeping out the Catholics.
Wednesday, 4 July 2007
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4 comments:
How would pagans fit in?
We all fit in if we do politics in secular mode, just as the American Constitution sets it out so gloriously.
Religious categories lead to disaster in politics, but if that's what are going to be used then Pagans are a bit weak, M, so I suppose they will fit in in the 'not having a lot of say' sector.
Some of us had no say in who we joined , that 'mark or seal upon the soul that cannot be effaced' was applied to babes in arms; others (my babes in arms for instance) have been raised, unmarked, to choose.
As for belief in a god or gods that's up to what we think.
I shouldn't be stopped from being Queen of England just because I'm a papist. Nor you just because you'e a dog (or are you a church of England dog M?)
What if my religion requires me to kill members of other "decadent" faiths or betray the country I live in . I think it is too easy to dismiss religious intolerance as absurd and we do it because we have forgotten what real faith is .When I read accounts of people from other times I notice that default belief in heaven and hell nested in an urbane and educated mind is almost impossible for the modern paradigm to simultaneously contain. You draw back in astonishment when a supersophisticate would nonetheless rather burn than spend an eternity in a hell that is as real as breakfast to him .The horror of Popery is hard empathise with now but we should try not to dismiss it as ignorant “prejudice” that loathsome and in this case anachronistic word
This arrogance of chronology is why the West has persisted in its misunderstanding of Islam. It is a misunderstanding of the nature of faith and that is why Liberal plural societies can only exist happily in a relatively homogenous cultural accord. There is no deal to be done and personally I would like to see more religious persecution rather than less albeit of a modern persuasive kind . Immigration is clearly a related issue.
We are sometimes appalled at the devastation to cultural artefacts wrought by religious upheaval and that is because we have come to see such things as having no function other than to entertain . To those who destroyed Catholic gaudiness they were functioning weapons of the dark one . I recall HG you were somewhat against the burning of books . I would be happy for all sorts of books to be burnt because they can also be weapons . Liberty and freedom , to conclude , are very much more nuanced concepts than Liberals would have us believe. The freedom of poetry is coextensive with its rules as is the harmony of music
On the Brown bits and pieces however I think they are probably only there to provide cover for the EU non vote , continued regionalisation despite the clearest rejection and turning Nelson`s blind eye to the problem of English votes . If the Conservative Party can get above 265 seats which I am, certain they will how will Brown govern in England . His laws will have no ....oh whats the word HG....they will have no thingy.
I imagine you may now be wafting elegantly in the mystic stillness of the Italian morning HG, brooding on the world’s troubles
Devo andare adesso.
Ciao
(?..ahem)
'wafting elegantly in the mystic stillness of the Italian morning'
I went to choose a new kitchen sink N; palest primrose yellow stony-stuff (Ithought it would be cheery to do the washing up in).
It is an unnervingly lovely blue morning though. Where the Arno cuts across the landscape, very early in the day it's covered in its own patches of mist, then a dark green line of trees. Fetching.
What you say is right, if I understand correctly; the last thing needed is to breathe life into pre-Enlightenment thinking, but if it is forced on us, there shouldn't be any underestimation, it hasn't gone away.
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