Lord Carey and Howard Jacobson feature in debate on Christian discrimination

Stop bashing Christians! Britain is becoming an anti-Christian country

03 Nov 2010

Speakers: Matthew Parris, Geoffrey Robertson QC, Dom Antony Sutch, Peter Hitchens, Howard Jacobson, Jonathan Freedland, George Carey

Why Now

The live Intelligence Squared debate packed out the Royal Geographic Society venue on an evening when the London Underground was on strike. The performances – Dom Anthony Sutch as the utterly compelling modern-day portly Abbot asking for the right kind of bashing; the angry intensity of Peter Hitchens; the panache of Howard Jacobson’s eulogy for language; the cut and thrust of Geoffrey Robertson; the sweet reason of Matthew Parris and the calm, measured performance of the former Archbishop of Canterbury – were a plentiful reward for any tribulation of the journey.

Underneath the brilliance of the performances lies some of the most serious questions of our time: should the state be neutral when it comes to religion? how far from neutrality is Britain today? and what special dispensations from the laws of a secular liberal society can we contemplate in the name of religious belief – how far does tolerance require us to tolerate intolerance?

You can read tomes of political theory on this. Or you can watch and listen carefully to this beautiful set of performances and find embedded in them encapsulations of almost every position taken on these tricky, subtle and crucial questions of our time.

Event information:

This sold-out debate took place at the Royal Geographical Society on the evening of November 3rd 2010. Highlights will be available soon, and full video is now available for our Premium Members.

Full audio is available on the player below:

You can continue the debate on Twitter and Facebook.

First vote: 275 For, 183 Against, 181 Don't know

Final vote: 216 For, 378 Against, 48 Don't know

Speakers for the motion

George Carey

Former Archbishop of Canterbury (1991-2002)
Peter Hitchens

Author and columnist whose latest book is The Rage Against God: Why Faith is the Foundation of Civilisation
Howard Jacobson

Award-winning novelist and journalist

Chair

Jonathan Freedland

Guardian columnist, author and broadcaster

Speakers against the motion

Matthew Parris

Columnist on The Times and the Spectator, author and broadcaster
Geoffrey Robertson QC

Leading human rights lawyer and author of a recent report on crimes against humanity in Iran
Dom Antony Sutch

Benedictine monk and former headmaster of Downside School