THE ARCHBISHOP of York has warned of a threat to civil liberties in Britain --- due, he suggests, to Government bureaucracy and "petty mindedness".Dr John Sentamu's salvo comes less than three months after he claimed that fear now grips UK politics.
The latest broadside from the Church of England's second-in command was sounded last week when he said the threat to civil liberties arose from red tape and diktats.
In an address in London to the Institute of Jewish Policy Research, the primate said: "Our current Government is in danger of sacrificing liberty in favour of an abused form of equality --- not a meaningful equality that enables the excluded to be brought into society, but rather an equality based on diktat and bureaucracy."
Religion, the archbishop argued, could act as a bulwark against state interference. He added: "Such petty-mindedness can be combated with the generosity of the Divine."
Last March, Dr Sentamu said that fear was gripping UK politics as a result of the "eradication of a sense of proportion" in attitudes to immigration and foreign policy.
But the main challenge for the country was to remain "guided by justice and not fear," he declared.
In his speech of last week, the archbishop, talking of "the Role of Religion in Politics", also attacked the "rapacious consumer appetite" which was, he said, eroding society's sense of duty.
"One of the many mantras of the New Labour party of a decade ago was that of 'rights and responsibilities.
"Seemingly unfettered rights and entitlements have come to the fore, whilst responsibility has not simply gone out of fashion but seems to have fallen off the radar," he said. Dr Sentamu added: "Our society needs once more to rediscover the compassion and service at the heart of religion."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce