Anglican bishops do like to pontificate on politics. A whole bunch of them are ganging up on poor old Gordon Brown and telling him he is doing a rotten job. Normally, nothing would give me greater pleasure than hearing the leader of a socialist government being excoriated; but in this case, the pot is calling the kettle black. If the bishops were not doing such a bad job themselves, more of the populace would be Christian and wouldn’t need the government interfering in their lives.
” And the devil took him up and showed him all the kingdoms of the world in a moment of time, and said to him, “To you I will give all this authority and their glory, for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will.” Luke 4:5.
Jesus resisted the temptation to further his kingdom through worldly power; Anglican bishops seem to have more trouble with that particular temptation. Politics is about the exercise of earthly power and the Anglican clerical elite seem all too willing to dive in. It’s hard not to get the impression that they are more comfortable with politics than faith – more comfortable with social engineering than individual redemption.
Clergy are as entitled as anyone else to comment on social issues; they would probably claim that their position infuses their meanderings on the social issues of the day with special import; it doesn’t. The implication that being theologically astute – I’m optimistically assuming that at least some western bishops fall into this category – is a qualification that lends insight on how to solve our economic woes and bring prosperity to the Third World is as likely as it being needed to remove someone’s appendix.
The bishops would like us to believe that a particular political slant naturally flows from a Christian perspective; but that is quite wrong. If it were not, all Christians would have the same politics, and obviously they don’t. After all, Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George W Bush, Bill Clinton and Barack Obama are – or were – all Christians.
And Cardinal Cormac Murphey O’Conner has his own view.
