"Only blue bloods stand to gain"
Brian Rudman writes in the New Zealand Herald:
leaders of the 15 former colonies who still accept the inherited British monarch as head of state are being asked by British Prime Minister David Cameron to perpetuate the 300-year-old discriminatory ban on Catholics being monarch.No Right Turn also sums it up nicely.
So much for taking human rights seriously and expecting the rest of the world to treat the Commonwealth as a relevant, 21st-century organisation.
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Sorry I posted in anothing section but Im reading this? It says there is a 300 year old ban on catholics becomming monarch. So there is no ban on everyother christian church ie methodist,baptist and lutheran etc?
Thanks
Col
No, the ban extends to the other churches too - see my last comment :-)
But that's only for the actual monarch him/herself isn't it - they're allowed to marry a person of any faith except a Catholic, right?
A great article, Lewis! Let's hope commentators continue to point out how ridiculous it all is.
Im not sure matt.
Thats what I cant find out? Im guessing its just catholics because thats what is being mentioned here and in the media.
If not then a better wording should have been non-anglican.
From the way the Act of Settlement sets it out, yes, the monarch can marry anyone who is a non-Catholic.
Historically, the objection has been to Catholicism and to a Catholic assuming the English throne. The idea that a non-conformist (for example a Congregationalist, Baptist or Methodist) might lay claim to the throne of England would have seemed ridiculous and not worth serious consideration at the time of the Act of Succession.
So it is natural that critics specifically address the issue of Catholic inaccessability to the throne, and it remains the case that for sociological reasons an heir to the English throne is more likely to convert to Catholicism than to any other religion.
But as Lewis says, effectively all other faiths are excluded. That means non-Anglican Christians, Muslim, Jews, Buddhist, Shinto, Ratana, Ringatu, Pai Marire - the list is endless.
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