Archbishop Of Canterbury: British Values Are Based On ‘Threat And Fear’

Dec 2, 2016 by

by Harry Farley, Christian Today

The Archbishop of Canterbury has criticised the government’s ‘British values’ as he said neither democracy nor the rule of law answers problems of division and hatred in the UK.

Justin Welby led a debate in the House of Lords on Friday discussing “shared values underpinning our national life”. He said the Home Office definition of “fundamental British values” is based on a “revisionist secularism notion of our national identity” and is “increasingly disconnected” from the UK’s history.

The threat of violent extremism and immigration led to the government’s desire to define British values, he said. But Welby warned: “Values built on feelings of threat and fear can lead us down a very dangerous path.”

He said they could lead to us “turning inwards” and “strangled the hope of the common good”.

Welby referred to “great times of change in mood and culture” in the UK after Brexit and Trump’s election to the presidency and said it demands “a re-imagining of what we are about”.

The government defines fundamental British values as “democracy, the rule of law, individual liberty and mutual respect for and tolerance of those with different faith and beliefs and for those without faith”.

But Welby said these were reductive and “not properly embedded in the heritage of our country” which was based on Christian teaching. He said values such as democracy and the rule of law are not “the final answer” to problems of hatred and division.

Welby pointed to Martin Luther King Jr and Archbishop-emeritus of Cape Town Desmond Tutu as examples of people who did not accept the rule of law when it was unjust.

Read here

Read Archbishop’s address in full here

See also: When people in a society share a strong moral code, there is greater trust and solidarity, by Rabbi Lord Jonathan Sacks

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