Letter responding to today’s Sydney Morning Herald that they are unlikely to print:
I read the editorial in today’s Herald with exasperation. The “age-old division of church and state” referred to is sheer nonsense. The Queen is the head of the Church of England. The secular nature of the UK is enforced by the agnosticism of the majority. There is no institutional enforcement of this separation (as there is in, say, France); there is no consitution at all, just a gentleman’s agreement to play by certain unspoken rules.
Dr Williams may quite possibly be wrong, but the tendency of the liberal media (such as the Herald) to roll their eyes and suggest that, by making an intelligent contribution to the vital (and lacking) intellectual engagement between Islam and Christianity, he is “asking for” the tide of mindless vitriol by the rightwing media (the usual suspects) - “Dr Williams left himself open to misunderstanding” - is, in effect, demanding that our foremost intellectuals dumb down their public statements to appease a rabid lowest common denominator, and limit its exploration of the issues to truisms and platitudes - rather like the portentious and parsimonious “let the law govern the land” with which the editorial closes. I would suggest you leave the pulpit to the priest.
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