British society risks being
“undermined” if the biblical principles that have underpinned it for so
long are eroded, the Bishop of London has said.
Dr Richard Chartres told a symposium on the Bible in the House of
Lords yesterday: “Our culture and civilisation were founded on the
Bible.
“The economy and politics must have ground beneath them. In Britain
that ground has been biblical since our earliest days – and you do not
sacrifice that without sacrificing much of what has been built upon that
ground.”
He said concepts such at dignity and tolerance at the heart of
British society would be “very difficult to sustain without a Christian
ground”.
“Although it has become difficult to use the language of the Bible in
this country, it will become more and more obvious that these values
and these principles will be unsustainable without the Christian
ground,” he said.
The bishop also defended the decision of the Duke and Duchess of
Cambridge to use the King James Version at their wedding last month.
“At the royal wedding, the couple chose traditional words and none of the commentators remarked on it,” he said.
“But the following week the church press was full of commentators deploring the use of fusty words.
“But we need to remember that the couple who chose those words were both born in 1982.”
Professor John Wyatt, Professor of Ethics and Perinatology at
University College London, said the scriptures had had a “profound”
effect on him as a paediatrician.
“Because Jesus was a baby, all babies are special. I have come to
realise, as Mother Teresa put it, that when we care for the least of
these we are tending the wounds of Christ,” he said.
The professor urged Christians to speak up for the sanctity of human life before the law.
“English law is still deeply penetrated by this notion that all human
life is special,” he said. “As we debate the appropriate use of new
and powerful technologies a special responsibility falls on us.”
Baroness Butler-Sloss said she hoped to see more people pick up a King James Bible during its 400th anniversary year.
“In these days of moral pluralism, the celebration of the King James
Bible in this year may encourage more people to read it and to benefit
from it.”
Olave Snelling, chair of the Christian Broadcasting Council and
organiser of the symposium, said the Bible continued to be
“foundational” to Britain as a nation.
“The Bible is a phenomenal work of literature, but so much more. It
is God-breathed. Today we want to raise our voices in this celebration
of Britain and the Bible,” she said.