I don't believe it

Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor takes a patronising line on atheists -
and reveals he doesn't even understand the nature of secularism

Terry Sanderson

May 9, 2008 12:00 PM
Where does on start with a speech as specious and self-serving as the
one given by Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor in Westminster Cathedral
yesterday?
The BBC headed its report of the event: "'Respect atheists', says
Cardinal". Can you imagine anything so utterly patronising than the
leader of some rapidly diminishing religious sect (in the UK at
least - with a 40% decline in attendance in a generation) telling a
huge proportion of the population that he's prepared to tolerate
them? And why is he prepared to tolerate them? Well, because even if
they say they don't believe in God, God is still with them and,
really, atheism is just a "distorted kind of Christianity".

But more worrying than that is Murphy-O'Connor's caricature of
secularism as some kind of threat to people's personal beliefs. He
conflates atheism and secularism, either through ignorance, or more
likely deliberately, and then says that it is trying to rob people of
their spirituality.

That is not what secularism is about. Murphy-O'Connor is nearer the
mark when he says that secularists want to "privatise religion" and
reduce its influence in the public arena. There is a difference
between individual believers bringing by their version of morality
into the public debate, and a Church wanting to write its dogmas into
law.

Faith is about believers having a personal relationship with their
God. Religion, on the other hand, is about organising those believers
and bidding for temporal power in their name. Secularists have no
problem with the former, but they have a lot of problems with the
latter.

And as for the claim that Christians are "denied a voice", take a
listen to the Today programme, as broadcast this morning. Richard
Dawkins, who was personally attacked by Murphy-O'Connor in his
speech, was given three minutes to tie John Humphrys in knots about
the BBC's automatic deference to religious leaders. An hour later
Murphy-O'Connor was allotted seven and a half minutes to repeat the
unfounded assertions about non-religious people being incapable of
living a full life, and about religion being denied a voice.
Hopefully spurred by Dawkins' chiding, Humphrys did give the Cardinal
a harder time than is usual with clerics on the BBC.

Murphy-O'Connor also speaks with forked tongue when he tries to
portray the Catholic Church as some persecuted institution that means
harm to no one. He says the Catholic Church is caricatured as "some
heartless, insular institution that wants to deny people their
freedom".

Cardinal - this is not a caricature. It is the truth. Your own
actions and pronouncements confirm it. You have tried to deny human
rights to homosexuals, you have tried to rob women of the right to
choose contraception and abortion and thereby take control of their
lives, you have tried (and continue to try) to interfere with
scientific research that may lead to the alleviation of enormous
suffering. You have attempted to manipulate the political process by
pressurising Catholic MPs. On a personal level you - and your church -
try to control every aspect of your followers' lives, from telling
them what to think, what to eat and when to eat it, to telling them
who they can sleep with and even what they can and cannot do when
they get between the sheets.

You have argued that Christian leaders should have privileged input
to government policymaking. You have said that you should have
unchallenged access to the BBC. You are a politician as much as a
priest, but no one has elected you. It is you and your church - not
secularists or atheists- which are out of step with the people of
this country.

Just how remote Catholic bishops are was illustrated in a YouGov poll
(pdf) for Catholics for Choice in November. Only a seventh of the
population agreed with the Catholic bishops or Vatican position on
abortion law, and only just over a quarter (27%) of Catholics. And
there is little doubt that the bishops' line on contraception and
homosexuality would be even more out on a limb. Yet it is the Pope's
three-line whip that the Catholic MPs are forcing the government to
accept.

You ask why the government continually thwarts your will - the answer
is that they are elected to represent the people, while you take your
orders from an unaccountable central source in another country.

You may bleat that people no longer believe - but that is their
choice and choice is the one thing that the Catholic church fears. As
far as you are concerned, there is only one way - the Catholic way.
Well, the country at large, and increasingly your own congregations,
are telling you that the Catholic way is not their way, as this poll
so clearly reveals.