Category Archives: Law and Faith

Laugh at it, but you really are funding prison rape

The Los Angeles Times has a very disturbing article on the reality and frequency of rape within prisons. Unfortunately, our culture thinks that it’s always okay to joke about that issue in the terms of “dropping the soap”, etc. Given this cultural insensitivity, I say bravo to the LA Times for bringing this to our attention and shame on all of us for joking and taking this topic so lightly!

Here is the article:

May God grant mercy to our prisons and may a new way a rehabilitation and a true understanding of “prison” be re-established in our united states. Prison, for those who can be released into the world after serving their time, should be about redemption, not merely retribution and punishment.

For those interested in someone who has tried their best to help our prisons change, visit Chuck Colson’s minstiry here. Here is a link to their “about” page.

In Christ and In Defense of the Faith,

The Former Archbishop Speaks About the Current Archbishop

In continuing coverage of the debate in Great Britain about Muslim Law… The predecessor of the current Archbishop spoke out on the topic in a recent edition of The Telegraph, a British newspaper. Here is the link to what he said, along with an excerpt below:

The storm of criticism that greeted the Archbishop of Canterbury’s lecture on sharia law in Britain will no doubt have disappointed him but, in fact, he may have done us a great favour by airing this whole area of controversy. He might even be regarded as prescient for discussing sharia, even before demand builds among Muslim communities for special provision in British law. Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury, says there is no Islamic consensus on the application of sharia.

Indeed, some opinion polls have the number of British Muslims wanting to live under sharia as high as 60 per cent. Furthermore, sharia councils are based in almost every city and town with a sizeable Muslim population. Famously, Canada’s politicians came perilously close to introducing Islamic law for matrimonial cases, headed off eventually by an alliance of women’s groups and the opposition of ordinary Muslims.

Dr. Williams’s chief concern is the protection of religious communities against an increasingly aggressive secularism which last year, for instance, saw Roman Catholic adoption agencies put out of business by an insistence that they act against their conscience by placing children with gay couples.  (read more…)

Update: Latest News on Muslim Law Debate in England

Here are some recent articles regarding the recent debate and controversy that was recently started after the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr. Rowan Williams, said that Sharia Law is inevitable for Great Britain:

Also, for those of you following the Anglican crisis, here is an update from Christianity Today on the latest decision from several African Provinces that have said they will no attend the once-per-decade Lambeth gathering of the Anglican Communion:

Excerpt:

Events in the global Anglican Communion are going from bad to worse. On Feb. 12, an official governing body of the Anglican Province of Uganda announced that they will not be attending the once-per-decade Lambeth gathering of Anglican bishops from around the world. (Nigeria and Rwanda have also indicated they will not attend. Kenya will decide in April.)

Ugandan Anglicans place the blame at the feet of revisionist and “unrepentant” American Episcopal Bishops and a compromised, ineffective Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams, saying:

This decision has been made to protest the invitations extended by the Archbishop of Canterbury, The Most Rev. and Rt. Hon. Rowan Williams, to TEC Bishops whose stand and unrepentant actions created the current crisis of identity and authority in the Anglican Communion.

Look here for the full statement released late on Feb. 13.

Law and Faith: N.T. Wright Interview

N.T. Wright was briefly interviewed on the topic of Law and Faith related to a recent lecture he gave at the London School of Economics. Here is the link and his lecture download. I’m posting the YouTube video of the Interview below. What do you think? Are people over-reacting to Archbishop Rowan Williams’ lecture on Muslim Law and British Law?

[HT: James Grant]