CT: Lord Justice Laws ruled last week that it would be “divisive” and “capricious” for the law to protect a moral position on the grounds of religious beliefs. How much did his ruling make sense to you?
WB: It doesn’t seem to me to be a rational judgement and doesn’t seem to understand either that until we change, this nation has an established Church and the constitution defends the Church. I think that religious freedom is a very, very important issue that we lose at great cost and it seems to me that Lord Laws, for reasons of his own and his own agenda, made a ruling that is rationally incomprehensible and actually very serious for the future of the Christian faith.
CT: You said you believe this is a “tricky moment” for Christians in the UK. Is there anything we can be hopeful about?
WB: I think sadly the politicians have adopted and promulgated a kind of multi-faith inclusivism as a sort of political correctness. If you talk to leaders of other faiths they don’t want Christians to lose their rights because they know that if Christians lose their rights in this country, they will lose their rights as well.
What we should have done is while maintaining our commitment as a Christian nation should have offered Christian hospitality to people of other faiths and secured their religious freedom here without actually abandoning the faith that has shaped our nation and made us who we are. Instead we’ve ended up with a politeness to everybody else but a nothingness of our own. So we really need to get back to our moorings as a nation.
CT: Are you concerned about the debate in recent months over whether there should be a completely democratically elected House of Lords. Do you see that as a sign that the secular worldview is becoming increasingly entrenched in the UK?
WB: There are two issues there. The first is whether you want two Houses that are simply democratic Houses that can be packed out by the government of the day or whether you want another chamber where people of merit who have served the nation in one way or another can have a voice as a kind of extra voice or a check on what parliament may do for its own reasons.
I actually think that the House of Lords has an honoured place as a part democratically elected body and I would be very sad to see the bishops removed from the House of Lords. If we were at a secure place where we were again a thoroughly Christian nation I think that would be the time for the bishops to cease to be there but in the meantime they need to stand up for Christian values on behalf of all Christians and should do that - and have been increasingly doing that recently - with a united voice more.
