Anne TootillUK Bishop claims moral vacuum left by the decline in Christian virtues
May 29th 2008 09:49
Accusation: Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali claims radical Islam is filling the moral vacuum left by the decline in Christian virtues.
It has destroyed family life and left the country defenceless against the rise of radical Islam in a moral and spiritual vacuum.
The Right Reverend Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, said the country was mired in a doctrine of 'endless self-indulgence' that had brought an explosion in public violence and binge-drinking.
The Pakistani-born bishop dated the downfall of Christianity from the 'social and sexual revolution' of the 1960s.
The bishop said 'something momentous' happened in the 1960s. He quoted historians who point to a cultural revolution in which women ceased to uphold or pass on the Christian faith.
He quoted an academic who blames the loss of 'faith and piety among women' for the steep decline in Christian worship.
He said: 'It has created the moral and spiritual vacuum in which we now find ourselves.' In the place of Christianity there was nothing 'except perhaps endless self-indulgence'.
The bishop said the consequences were 'the destruction of the family, the loss of a father figure, especially for boys, because the role of fathers is deemed otiose (good word that, otiose, I had to look that one up) the abuse of substances (including alcohol), the loss of respect for human life which leads to horrendous and mindless physical attacks on people, the increasing communications gap between generations and social classes - the list is very long.'
Christian values of human dignity, equality and freedom could be lost as the way is left open for the advance of brands of Islam that do not respect Western values.
The bishop warned that views not founded on Christianity would not produce the same values. 'Instead of Christian virtues of humility, service and sacrifice, there may be honour, piety, the saving of face, etc'.
Over the past six months, Dr Nazir-Ali has made a number of criticisms of Islam and its influence.
Last weekend he was one of just three bishops who backed a move in the Church's parliament, the General Synod, to encourage the conversion of Muslims to Christianity
The bishop, himself an immigrant from Pakistan in the mid-1980s, admitted that he might be thought the least qualified person to discuss British identity.
Born into a Roman Catholic family in Pakistan, the young Michael Nazir-Ali converted to Anglicanism at the age of 20.
As a young man, he suffered rough treatment of the kind regularly handed out to Christians in a country where failing to follow the official religion can sometimes end in murder.
He moved to Cambridge to study theology and then returned as a priest to Pakistan before being brought to London in the 1980s to serve as an assistant to the then Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Robert Runcie.
He is one of the bishops who has been called on by the Prince of Wales to give advice on Islam.
However, Dr Nazir-Ali does not share the prince's enthusiasm for Islamic values. He has warned Charles to give up his hope of being 'defender of faiths' because of the incompatibility of different beliefs.
Dr Nazir-Ali has accused Muslims of promoting double standards by looking for both 'victimhood and domination'; he has called for the removal of 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.
I have a feeling that won't be happening any time soon.
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