George Carey - Public Statements Since Retirement

Public Statements Since Retirement

As Archbishop of Canterbury, Carey was active in inter-faith work and worked for better relations with Muslims, calling for "deeper dialogue" between the two faiths. On 25 March 2004, after his retirement, he made a speech lamenting the lack of democracy and innovation in Muslim countries, suggesting a lack of critical scholarship toward the Qur'an and saying that moderate Muslims should "resist strongly" the take-over of Islam by extremists. He also criticised the majority of Muslims, who do not support extremists, for not denouncing them. Some viewed his speech as an outspoken attack on Islam; Carey responded: "Those who took the trouble to read my lecture will have noted that I was as critical of the West, of Christianity and, for that matter, also sharply critical of Israel's policy with respect to Palestine." Carey wrote an opinion piece in The Times on 10 September 2008 (p. 26) in which he said: "Immigration must be kept under control if we are to retain the essentials of British society that have been built up over the generations. ... If this scale of immigration continues, with people of different faiths, cultures and traditions coming here, what will it mean to be British?"

In February 2006, Carey attracted more controversy by declaring in a letter to The Times that a General Synod motion supported by his successor, Rowan Williams, in favour of disinvestment in a company active in the occupied territories of Israel made him ashamed to be an Anglican.

Since his retirement, Carey has supported same-sex partnerships in secular law but continues to oppose same-sex marriage and church blessings of same-sex partnerships. In March 2006, he personally endorsed "with enthusiasm" a questionnaire to American bishops from what he described as "Lay Episcopalians who wish their Church to remain faithful to Orthodox Christianity" in relation to the controversy in that church over the ordination of an openly gay bishop. For this, he was chided by Frank Griswold, the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church in the United States, "for allowing himself to be used by others whose political ambition is to sow division".

Carey initially said he "was not too upset" by the controversy but, in April 2006, when criticism of his post-retirement activism on a number of fronts had been voiced in an open letter, he issued a public statement complaining that such comments were "mischievous and damaging to the Anglican Communion". In an interview for the BBC, on 23 April 2006, he said "I think this is a mischievous letter from Australia and I hope the authors will reflect and repent."

In May 2006, he made a speech to the Virginia Theological Seminary, subsequently published on his personal website, which said "When I left office at the end of 2002 I felt the Anglican Communion was in good heart" but that, as a result of subsequent events "it is difficult to say in what way we are now a Communion." This was reported on 11 June 2006 in the Sunday Telegraph ("Church has fallen apart since I was in charge, says Carey") and on 12 June 2006 in The Guardian and The Independent as an attack on his successor. An email from Carey on the day of publication was circulated in which he strongly denied this and said "I am hopping mad and will want a retraction from the Sunday Telegraph, otherwise I will lodge a complaint."

In September 2006, he backed Pope Benedict XVI in the controversy over his comments on Islam and declared that "there will be no significant material and economic progress until the Muslim mind is allowed to challenge the status quo of Muslim conventions and even their most cherished shibboleths." However, his comments attracted much less attention and interest than those of the Pope.

In November 2006, Carey was barred from delivering a Church Mission Society lecture at Bangor Cathedral by the Dean of Bangor, who viewed that Carey had become "a factor of disunity and of disloyalty to Rowan Williams, a divisive force."

In September 2009, Carey provoked outrage among some Anglicans by making positive remarks about the arms trade. He was quickly condemned by a number of Christian activists, particularly since the Lambeth Conference has resolved to oppose the arms trade.

In October 2009, Carey said it was inexcusable that the Vatican gave a relatively short notice of its offer to receive some Anglo-Catholics into the Roman Catholic Church within a personal ordinariate, but he nonetheless gave a cautious welcome to the offer.

In January 2010, Carey gave an interview on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, in which he said as part of the Balanced Migration Group he would want to start a debate on the UK's migration policy. He said that while the UK migration policy should not "give preference to any particular group", the points-based immigration system should give preferences to certain prospective migrants based on their values and backgrounds. In the same interview, however, he states that he was worried that the UK will become less of a Christian country and that he believes migration policy should foster the preservation of the Christian heritage of the United Kingdom.

In April 2010, Carey submitted a witness statement to an appeal court considering the dismissal of a relationship counsellor who had refused to work with homosexuals, in which he suggested that intervention by senior clerics, including himself, was "indicative of a future civil unrest". In the same statement, he suggested that cases engaging religious rights should not be heard by any of the judges who had decided the previous cases, "as they have made clear their lack of knowledge about the Christian faith." His submission was rejected by the Court as "misplaced" and "deeply inimical to the public interest". Carey's position was widely criticised in the press. Andrew Brown, writing in The Guardian, suggested that the effect of the judgment was to say that Carey was "a self-important and alarmist twit who has no idea what he is talking about". The Church Times commented that "One might be forgiven for thinking that Lord Carey of Clifton has generated more column-inches since retiring as Archbishop of Canterbury than he did when in office. His latest foray into the nation’s media is more than usually regrettable, as it strikes at the heart of the independence of the judiciary." However, his position was supported by his former colleague, the retired Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir Ali.

In February 2012, speaking at the launch of the advocacy group Coalition for Marriage, Carey voiced his opposition to the government's proposal to legalise same-sex marriage, stating that he was "worried and disappointed" and calling the proposal "cultural vandalism".

Carey has been a leading advocate for the rights of Christians in advance of a case on religious freedom, expected to begin on 4 September 2012 at the European Court of Human Rights, regarding the case of two workers forced out of their jobs over the wearing of crosses as a visible manifestation of their faith.