Posted on 05/28/2008 11:19:35 AM PDT by Free ThinkerNY
Senior Bishop Warns -
Radical Islam is filling a ‘moral vacuum’ in Britain, a senior Church of England bishop has warned.
The Bishop of Rochester, the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, has said that the decline of Christian values has meant that Britain is now gripped by the doctrine of ‘endless self-indulgence’ which had led to the destruction of family life.
He warned that the ‘newfangled and insecurely founded doctrine of multiculturalism' has led to immigrants creating ‘segregated communities and parallel lives’.
In an article published in the new political magazine Standpoint, Nazir-Ali claimed that the Church lost its influence over the country’s morals during the 'social and sexual revolution' of the 1960s.
'It is this situation that has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves.
'While the Christian consensus was dissolved, nothing else, except perhaps endless self-indulgence, was put in its place.'
The bishop’s comments are just the latest in a long line of combustible remarks he has made over the relationship between Islam and the West.
Earlier this year Nazir-Ali, faced death threats when he said that that some parts of the country had become ‘no-go areas’ for non-Muslims.
Last weekend he also courted controversy by claiming that the Church was not doing enough to convert Muslims to Christianity
In the article the bishop said Marxism has been exposed as a nonsense that radical Islam now posed a real threat:
'We are now confronted by another equally serious ideology, that of radical Islamism, which also claims to be comprehensive in scope.'
The bishop, who was born in Pakistan of Christian parents, said Christianity had knitted together a 'rabble of mutually hostile tribes' to create British identity.
'The consequences of the loss of this discourse are there for all to see: the destruction of the family because of the alleged parity of different forms of life together; the loss of a father figure, especially for boys, because the role of fathers is deemed otiose; the abuse of substances (including alcohol); the loss of respect for the human person leading to horrendous and mindless attacks on people."
'Radical Islamism, for example, will emphasise the solidarity of the umma (worldwide community of the Muslim faithful) against the freedom of the individual.
'Instead of the Christian virtues of humility, service and sacrifice, there may be honour, piety and the importance of 'saving face'."
Bishop of Rochester profile
The Bishop of Rochester has emerged over the past two years as the Church of England's pre-eminent defender of traditional Christianity.
The Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali' is among the clerics who speak most strongly against attempts to remove signs of Christianity from public life.
His outspokenness has put him in the vanguard of opposition to hardline Islamism and made him one of the highest-placed enemies of the gay rights movement. He has set himself against feminism by criticising couples who decline to have children
And he also appears the bishop most at odds with the leading Anglican liberal, Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams.
The clash between the two men has been sharply illuminated this year: while the Bishop of Rochester has been railing against Islamic no-go areas, criticising the spread of mosques, and calling for Muslims to be converted, Dr Williams dug himself deep into trouble with a call for the constitutional establishment of Islamic sharia law.
Dr Nazir-Ali has two major assets in common with the Church of England's other most widely-heard and popular prelate, Archbishop of York Dr John Sentamu.
Like Dr Sentamu, Dr Nazir-Ali is a member of an ethnic minority and a product of Anglican influence in what was once the British empire.
And like the Ugandan-born Archbishop of York, Dr Nazir-Ali, who continues to hold Pakistani citizenship, has first-hand experience of persecution.
The heritage appears to have freed both men from the crippling need to apologise and appease that seems to afflict many Church of England leaders.
He has accused Muslims of promoting double standards by looking for both 'victimhood and domination'; he has called for powers for officialdom to remove veils from Muslim women for security reasons; and he has warned repeatedly over the dangers of extremism.
In particular he has called on Islamic leaders to allow Muslims to abandon their beliefs and adopt other religions.
Dr Nazir-Ali has spoken up for an estimated 3,000 Britons under threat of retaliation for giving up their faith and he has condemned Islamic states that maintain the death penalty for apostasy.
His disapproval of gay rights has led him to anger Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams by threatening to boycott this year's Lambeth Conference of Anglican bishops from around the world.
He has criticised civil partnerships and opposed the extension of IVF treatment to single women and lesbians.
Dr Nazir-Ali is married to Valerie, whom he met in a church in Cambridge, and has two sons, Shammy and Ross. The boys made him a temporary hero of pop culture a decade ago when he confessed that, thanks to their influence, he could name all five Spice Girls.
bttt
When you push out God, Satan rushes in.
And the left thought that removing Christianity as an influence would stop stifling their “put your jubblies anywhere warm” good time.
Amen. Bump.
Ravi Zacharias once wrote, “Nature abhors a vacuum, especially a spiritual one, and though this flirtation with absolute secularism may win the momentary dawn of a new era, it will lose the day to more strident religions than the Christian belief. Of that, I am certain. Ask any Muslim missionary that question and he or she will tell you that is so.” Seems he was right.
Removing Christianity as an influence is always mistake #1. Then, once the Christian values are erased, everyone looks around at the smoldering remains of civilized society and wonders what went wrong.
As with capitalism, where one man sees trash, another sees opportunity. In this case, the ones that are taking advantage of the opportunity are Muslims intent on spreading throughout the western hemisphere.
This article is spot on. And to those FReepers who think there is too much “religion” here. All our freedoms come from God.
I've been saying this for years.. I am ashamed to have been born at a time to where I am connected with the 60's generation, although I never took part in that crazy movement.
Recently as I was reading OT, It hit me. 1Samuel: 7 & 8, when Israel had the protection of G_D, and when they strayed from the protection of G_D. Looks like History is repeating itself, both here and in the U.K.
Oh, didn’t the “Age of Reason” bring us total enlightenment and Utopia instead of 100’s of millions of dead people?
Doesn’t “Postmodernism” lead to everyone getting along because no one has a basis to tell someone else that their belief system is defective?
multiculturalism is a liberal disaster!
Of course the “moral vacuum” needs to be filled, but the problem in England lies in what it’s being filled with.
Feces by any other name is still... poop.
I like to put it this way:
Secularism exploited Christianity’s goodness.
Islam exploits Secularism’s weakness.
But what happened to cause it? Why did one generation so suddenly slough off its morality in favor of sexual gratification? What changed the culture so drastically so quickly? I don't think it could be law or the courts. Could the technologically-empowered media be the primary blame?
Of course, Christ saves our souls.
“the decline of Christian values has meant that Britain is now gripped by the doctrine of ‘endless self-indulgence’ which had led to the destruction of family life.”
The left has had tremendous success in punishing Christians but is afraid to say ‘boo’ to the Muslims. Maybe the Christians mistake was abandoning the Inquistion-fear certainly gets results when applied to the modern left.
At least that's what "The Century of Sex: Playboy's History of the Sexual Revolution, 1900-1999" says about it. I think they're right. And Pope Paul VI predicted the whole flamin' train-wreck 30 years before the publication of this very interesting book.
“When you push out God, Satan rushes in.”
See my tagline.
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