Michael Nazir-Ali “The BNP's values aren't Christian” http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/belief/2009/oct/27/bnp-christianity-nazir-ali
英国国民党(BNP)のNick GriffinがBBCに出演したことは大きな騒動になったようだが、その中で彼が”Christian”という形容詞を使ったことに対する異論。Michael Nazir-Ali氏はアングリカンの聖職者。
先ず英国国制における「ユダヤ=基督教的伝統」の特権的な地位について説く;
さらに、人権概念の聖書的、基督教的起源について。また、それと「科学的人種主義」との対比;
The Judeo-Christian tradition, drawn from the Bible, is at the very heart of our constitutional arrangements: the Queen in parliament under God. The signs of this influence are everywhere; in the Queen's speech, prayers in parliament, the national flag and anthem, the special place of the Church of England "by law established", worship in our schools and at times of celebration or sorrow. The presence of this tradition, which is characterised by self-criticism, and is, therefore, ever reforming and evolving, has given us the institutions of state, the laws of the land and the values by which society lives from day to day.
そして、結論。BNPを駁すると同時に「多文化主義」も批判していることは留意すべきだろう;
Our affirmation of the innate dignity of the human person is based squarely on the biblical idea that all human beings have been made in God's image. From this have also arisen the notions that the human person is a moral agent whose conscience should be respected and whose consent is required for the governance of the nation (it is interesting to note that democracy has first emerged in nations that have had the Judeo-Christian tradition at their root). Our strong commitment to equality, similarly, derives from the biblical teaching that all humanity has a common origin. This is contrary to the theories of "scientific racism" which arose as an unforeseen consequence of the publication of Darwin's The Origin of Species and which so horrified him. These theories held that the different racial groups had different genetic origins and they underlie much 19th and 20th century European and American racism. Fortunately, contemporary science is confirming here the instinct of the Bible, rather than the fantasies of the racists, in its findings about human origins.Liberty, similarly, and, in particular, human rights discourse, is grounded in the struggles of missionaries and moral theologians to have the natural rights of the indigenous peoples of the newly discovered Americas respected by church and state. This discourse was taken up, refined and refracted through the Enlightenment and in what followed. It took many years for the logic of "natural freedom" to be recognised but, without Christianity, we would never have come to it.
「ユダヤ=基督教的」という形容詞はそんなに古くから使われていたのではなく、20世紀にユダヤ人が(プロテスタント的風土への同化を伴って)米国社会に統合されていく過程で使われるようになったのでは? また、Judeo-Christianという表現の問題点は、それをBiblical(聖書的)と同義的に使うとき、イスラームを隠蔽若しくは排除してしまうことだろう。イスラームもまた聖書的伝統に立ち、アダムとイヴを人類の起源としている宗教だということが隠蔽されてしまう。
Two things, I hope, will be obvious from the above. The first is that we continue desperately to need this moral and spiritual tradition for our life together whether as families, communities or the nation as a whole. Secondly, it will be clear, by now, that this tradition is deeply inimical to the BNP's narrow, excluding and racist vision. In fact, it is this tradition which should have been at the basis of hospitality for the other and for the invitation to those coming to this country to integrate and make their own distinctive contribution. In its absence, multiculturalism was invented, which has led to separate lives and segregated communities. The biblical principle of loving the stranger as yourself (Leviticus 19:34) is far better and it is not too late now for us to make it a basis for a truly plural but also cohesive society.
http://d.hatena.ne.jp/sumita-m/20091028/1256729945で、Yakov Rabkin氏のテクストに言及した際に引用し忘れた文あり――「今日、世界中でユダヤ人がユダヤ人であることを理由に殺害されうるのは、不幸なことにイスラエル国内だけだ」*1。