But words apparently hurt the Archbishop of Canterbury just as much. So much so, that he still wishes the state to police the views of people who disagree with men in dog-collars and other religious garb. Yes, just as the blasphemy laws in the UK are about to be sent into the fiery pit of hell from whence they came, up pops Rowan Williams pleading for special privileges for the people of God.
“The law cannot and should not prohibit argument, which involves criticism, and even angry criticism at times,” said Dr Williams.
“But it can in some settings send a signal about what is generally proper in a viable society by stigmatising and punishing extreme behaviours that have the effect of silencing argument.”
He added that the law should “keep before our eyes the general risk of debasing public controversy by thoughtlessness and (even if unintentionally) cruel styles of speaking and action.”
The “effect of silencing argument” is a strange phrase to use. Note, he is not advocating a law against inciting hatred towards those who follow religions, that already exists, but he apparently wants to protect those religious types who are either too timid or intellectually incapable of continuing an argument, especially if the argument uses “cruel” language unintentionally. Pass me a box of tissues. Given the willingness, or even desire, of certain religious types to find cruel and offensive language in the most prosaic of pronouncements, such a law would make a mockery of any pretence that the UK has a commitment to free speech.