The media-savvy Archbishop of York – the most senior cleric in the CofE after the Archbishop of Canterbury – has had a go at the BBC:
The Archbishop of York, Dr John Sentamu, has accused the BBC of bias against Christianity and says the broadcaster fears a terrorist backlash if it is critical of Islam.
The archbishop, the second most senior figure in the Church of England’s hierarchy, said Christians took “more knocks” than other faiths at the hands of the BBC.
“They can do to us what they dare not do to the Muslims,” he said. “We are fair game because they can get away with it. We don’t go down there and say, ‘We are going to bomb your place.’ That is not in our nature.
Daiy Telegraph, BBC frightened of criticising Islam, says archbishop
Now, I’m no fan of religions in general or Christianity in particular; but I would suggest that Dr Sentamu’s missing a point here, that mainstream Christians aren’t fair game because the rest of us can get away with it but rather that mainstream Christianity is mature enough to accept the need to engage in reasoned debate in our essentially secular society, rather than demand a right to be taken seriously just by making preposterous assertions.
Some people, though, who might be expected to understand very well the nature of freedom and diversity in a liberal society, display a irresponsible lack of toleration that’s quite staggering. For Tom Coates for example:
Sir Elton John would like to ban all organised religion It’s a sentiment with which I find myself sympathetic to (sic)
Don’t like it? Ban it.
He’s smug and intolerant, He’s smug and intolerant, whenever people disagree with *him*. Thinks he’s always got the superior understanding. Check this out, for ranting hostility and ignorance over one of his pet subjects:
http://www.plasticbag.org/archives/2005/01/is_antigay_sentiment_on_the_rise/
Joe
27 Dec 06 at 8:48 pm
I read the post and the I read the post and the comments. The threat he very clearly made in referring to the supposed employer of ‘yeahright’ shows me where he stands on freedom of expression. He supports it as long as he isn’t offended, beyond which point he’s ready to make unpleasant and weasily threats.
But as Kenan Malik said, Free speech for everyone except bigots is not free speech at all. The right to free speech only has political bite when we are forced to defend the rights of people whose views we despise…It’s time we recognised that giving offence is a normal part of a plural society.
I don’t suppose Coates was serious when he wrote that he was sympathetic to ‘banning’ religion. I suppose he was trying to say, in his histrionic way, that he wasn’t disposed to support religion. But he does consistently seem a tad intolerant of basic liberal principles, I agree.
David
27 Dec 06 at 9:26 pm