Disagreeing on same-sex marriage doesn’t make you evil, says Rowan Williams
by Gabriella Swerling, Telegraph:
Former Archbishop of Canterbury to warn in Reith Lectures that moral debates ‘have become weaponised in the current culture wars’.
People with opposing views on same-sex marriage should not be labelled as “monstrous”, the former Archbishop of Canterbury has said.
Lord Williams, 72, will make the comments as part of his talk for the BBC’s Reith Lectures series.
The Telegraph has seen an advance copy of his speech in which he warns that moral debates “have become weaponised in the current culture wars“, meaning that nuance is lost.
He will also caution that cancel culture means that people of opposing views on contentious issues – such as same-sex marriage, abortion and assisted dying – are seen as “automatically monstrous and oppressive”.
His speech reads: “What about the evangelical registrar who will not solemnise same-sex marriages? What about the legal allowances made for Catholic doctors who will not perform abortions? How disruptive can the public manifestation of convictions be allowed to become in a diverse society?
“Questions like these have become weaponised in the current culture wars raging across North Atlantic societies in particular, in ways that more or less rule out nuanced exploration of what’s going on.”
The speech continues: “It won’t do to demonise those with inconvenient consciences as automatically monstrous and oppressive.
“You can’t simply ascribe deliberately evil intention to someone who disagrees on principle with the principles you think self-evident. Think, for example, of the debates over abortion or physician-assisted dying.”
Bishop of Oxford backs same-sex marriage
Lord Williams is set to make the comments as one of four speakers to deliver the BBC Radio 4 Reith Lectures for 2022 in the broadcaster’s centenary year. He will deliver his lecture alongside Chimamanda Adichie, the Nigerian writer; Darren McGarvey, the Scottish rapper and social commentator; and Dr Fiona Hill, the British-American foreign affairs specialist and author.
His comments come after the Bishop of Oxford, the Rt Rev Steven Croft, last month became the most senior Church of England cleric to back same-sex marriage.
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