Jews, Christians , Muslims and others - unite! Well, sort of... the devil

According to Archbishop Cranmer:

"It is announced from Lambeth Palace that the Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby was joined by Pope Francis and other Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist and Jewish leaders in a joint declaration to bring an end to the curse of modern slavery. The ground-breaking Global Freedom Network, which was launched with the support of the Archbishop and Pope in March 2014, brought together global faith leaders in a commitment to eradicate modern slavery by 2020 – throughout the world and for all time. It is estimated that over 36 million people around the globe (and at least 13,000 in the UK) live under the yoke of slavery, most commonly coerced prostitution or forced labour."

"The Joint Declaration emphasises that modern slavery – in terms of human trafficking, forced labour and prostitution, organ trafficking, and any relationship that fails to respect the fundamental conviction that all people are equal and have the same freedom and dignity – is a crime against humanity, and must be recognised as such by everyone and by all nations."

All the following were signatories to the Declaration:

Pope Francis (pp Roman Catholicism)
Her Holiness Mata Amritanandamayi (pp Hinduism)
Zen Master Thich Nhat Hanh (Thay) (pp Buddhism, represented by Venerable Bhikkhuni Thich Nu Chan Khong)
The Most Ven. Datuk K Sri Dhammaratana, Chief High Priest of Malaysia (pp Buddhism)
Rabbi Dr. Abraham Skorka (pp Judaism)
Chief Rabbi David Rosen, KSG, CBE (pp Judaism)
His All-Holiness Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew (pp Orthodoxy, represented by His Eminence Metropolitan Emmanuel of France)
Mohamed Ahmed El-Tayeb, Grand Imam of Al-Azhar (pp Sunni Islam, represented by Dr. Abbas Abdalla Abbas Soliman, Undersecretary of State of Al Azhar Alsharif)
Grand Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi al-Modarresi (pp Shi’a Islam)
Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Basheer Hussain al Najafi (pp Twelver Shi’a Islam, represented by Sheikh Naziyah Razzaq Jaafar, Special advisor of Grand Ayatollah Sheikh Omar Abboud (pp Shi’a Islam)
Most Revd and Right Hon Justin Welby, Archbishop of Canterbury (pp Anglicanism)

'All this is good, very good', to quote Cranmer. Quoting older sources, "The Devil is in the detail".

So what is the detail here?

Apparently, there was a caveat, "of sorts".

Take a look at the declaration:

We, the undersigned, are gathered here today for a historic initiative to inspire spiritual and practical action by all global faiths and people of good will everywhere to eradicate modern slavery across the world by 2020 and for all time.

In the eyes of God*, each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity. Modern slavery, in terms of human trafficking, forced labour and prostitution, organ trafficking, and any relationship that fails to respect the fundamental conviction that all people are equal and have the same freedom and dignity, is a crime against humanity.

We pledge ourselves here today to do all in our power, within our faith communities and beyond, to work together for the freedom of all those who are enslaved and trafficked so that their future may be restored. Today we have the opportunity, awareness, wisdom, innovation and technology to achieve this human and moral imperative.

*The Grand Imam of Al Azhar uses the word “religions”.

Note the little asterisk - my highlighting.

This is his, 'Get out of Jail Free' card. You can read the "Archbishop's" justified fulminations and conclusions here.

So no real unity then?

What is also interesting is another detail, and according to an even older quote, "Le bon Dieu est dans le détail" (the good God is in the detail). Certainly, any Bible expositor, Jewish or Christian, knows the truth of this. The quote is attributed to someone who was unlikely to have experienced the moment of realisation or revelation that comes from a new insight into scripture.

This detail is also in the above declaration.

In the eyes of God, each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity.

This seems to me to be a reasonable summary of Judeo-Christian teaching. I doubt that you would find it anywhere else. 

It would seem that we have persuaded most of them to accept a Biblical perspective. This is what it means to be a light to the nations. They will accept your teaching but not accept you or your God.

 

Strange how it's always Jews and Christians that get targeted

Regulations designed to protect schools from jihadist takeover have ended up targeting Jews and Christians. More on the 'Trojan Horse' scandal here and here.

Are we surprised?

No.

Archbishop Cranmer has expanded his operation in recent weeks. There is an interesting post on the new blog by a Gillan Scott who is Cranmer's deputy editor. It appears that faith schools have been told the following:

• That representatives of other faiths should be invited to lead assemblies and lessons in order for the school to demonstrate compliance with the Standards;
• That evidence needed to be provided, including within the curriculum, that the school “actively promoted other faiths”;
• That the school should actively promote the principles of the Equality Act 2010, that pupils must learn about people with protected characteristics and that the school must not give a viewpoint that certain lifestyles are wrong. Nor should the school promote a particular lifestyle; and
• That the promotion of a principle, namely the Christian principle that all people are equal before God and have inherent dignity as human beings, was not enough to demonstrate sufficient  respect for other people, as set out in the Equality Act 2010.

Translation: teach that religions other than your own are equally valid; teach that  lifestyles once called immoral are now to be accepted even encouraged.

Quoting from the blog of Adrian Warnock  at Patheos.com

Mr Jonathan Rabson, Executive Director of NAJOS (The National Association of Jewish Orthodox Schools) said: “This confrontational approach by inspectors is a worrying trend that has never been seen before in the history of the UK Jewish community and we fear that this suggests a shift in policy towards faith schools . . . Ofsted inspectors have asked hugely inappropriate questions and bullied the pupils into answering insensitive and anti-religious questions.”  (Source: Press Release NAJOS 8 October 2014.)

It seems that if these reports are accurate, the inspectors paid no regard to the fact that these orthodox Jewish children were being raised in a very conservative manner, to not interact with those of opposite gender, and to not have TVs or Internet devices. The idea that a young child from such a sheltered background should be asked whether they had a boyfriend or girlfriend by a stranger is preposterous, and frankly bordering on being abusive towards such young children.

NAJOS claims “30% of maintained Jewish secondary schools have received unannounced visits from Ofsted, and many of our independent orthodox Jewish schools have also received no-notice inspections.”  This seems like clear evidence of discriminatory targeting which, unless there really was good cause, surely breaks the very Equality Act these regulations were designed to protect!

It is unsurprising in such circumstances that the Jewish community fear anti-Semitism may have played a part in these decisions. (Source: NAJOS Letter to Nicky Morgan re inspections – 24 September 2014.) The 30% figure is disputed by Ofsted. (Source: Full Response from Ofsted re letter to DfE.)

A Guardian report , not known for their support of Jewish causes, is equally damning.

The Christian Institute is reporting on Jewish and Christian schools affected by the new regime. (See also here).

According to Christian Concern the guidelines have been shelved, note, not scrapped just shelved.

Why should we be worried by this semantic difference? The LibDems, coalition partners with the Tories, have voted to scrap Christian Assemblies. They may never govern in their own right, but they are a seed-bed for secular liberal ideology.  That very small, but vocal, group, "The national Secular Society" just loves it (here)

Christians and Jews need to be alert. The secularists will use Islamic terrorism and the accusation of Islamophobia to drive the God of Abraham out of schools.