Disestablishmentarianism
Not only is it one of the longest words the dictionary, it also describes precisely what Phil Woolas is saying. A definition of disestablishmentarianism:
–noun
1. a person who favors the separation of church and state, esp. the withdrawal of special rights, status, and support granted an established church by a state; an advocate of disestablishing a state church.–adjective
2. of, pertaining to, or favoring the disestablishment of a state church.
I fully support this aim. It is precisely what we need. The State and religion – all forms of religion – should be separate. No religion should possess a favoured link to the government, since we are not a mono-faith society. We exist surrounded by many faiths and many claims of truth. Who is the State to proclaim which is the truth?
However, neither should the State be athiest or anti-religion, but entirely agnostic and make no claims to religious authority.
Within fifty years, the Church of England should have lost its privileged position. It has no right to it. As with other religions, the CoE should have complete control over its internal organisation. The Prime Minister should not have any decision-making authority over the Anglican church, up to and including who the Archbishop of Canterbury is.
As for the “consequences for the monarchy”, they are minor. The only differences are that the titles “Defender of the Faith” and the “Supreme Governor” would become within the rights of the Church of England to offer to the monarch – essential if the rights of succession are reformed.
Separation is the only way forward. When the House of Lords is reformed, either all Bishops must be removed from the Lords in the reformation or representatives of all religions must be included, with no voting rights. There is no alternative.
We do not live in a religious country any more. Secular is the order of the age. No longer does the Church of England mean anything to most peoples everyday life. And so disestablishment is inevitable.
Phil Woolas is correct to raise this, even as politically inexpedient as it may be. Because it is an issue that does need to be resolved before too long.
You are falling into prepared traps, young Dragon. First it was Sarah Palin, where you got taken in (as, to be fair to you, so many others have done) by media manipulation. Now it is a “babies and bathwater” scenario.
There are very good reasons why the State has been allied to the Christian Church, not because it made things perfect but because it was vastly better than the alternative(s). A little independent research should clarify this with no spoon-feeding or leading from me.
We’re not mere robots, we are here with a purpose (actually, a whole collection of purposes!) and to devalue that by ignoring its core, its origins is unhelpful. There is no purpose to “life” at a purely secular level: it reduces us to the level of ants. We are (or should be!) better than that, and we should know why we are better and what is behind it all. That way, and that way alone, can we have a worthwhile society. All else is dross and of no real worth.
Inconvenient? Perhaps, to some; but that’s the way the Universe was created, and for good reason. Thus we can grow and develop, rather than stagnate; and that is a vital part of any governmental structure, which should be serving that end and helping to make such progress and development possible.
You’ll never get that in a secular (e.g. Socialist) society, nor in a falsely ideological (e.g. repressive pseudo-”Islamic”) nation. Neither serves God nor Man properly.
John, if you’re seriously suggesting that we should leave the CofE as part of the state, then you’re the one who has been taken in. Any Conservative should support this disestablishment, as it is part of reducing the control of the state and removing the assumption that the state is right – so right that it even knows the truth about god.
[...] is one very simple resolution to this issue, though and one which fis perfectly with my views: disestablishment. The King or Queen would no longer automatically be the “Supreme Governor”, but this [...]
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