Protector of Space

I say “all hail,” but not everyone does. There are Christians who consider the king’s new pledge to be an abrogation of the solemn oath he made at his coronation to be Defender of the Faith and thus see it as a further descent into that wishy-washy relativism that has bedeviled the Church this last half century or more. Where there are multifaiths, they ask, how can authority any longer pertain to the one true one? It strikes me as a fair question, but I am not going to ask it. I leave the Church of England to settle its own disputes. The phrase Defender of the Faith, I have to say, always left me feeling nervous and excluded. I knew well enough which faith that was, and it wasn’t mine. Now, if King Charles III makes good on his promise to protect the space for all faith, I dare to look forward to a warmer embrace. Surely, the king’s rejection of sectarianism—no matter how inelegantly phrased—will turn out to be good for the Jews.