First it was Rick Warren, who under pressure from many sides, finally spoke out against the anti-homosexuality bill still pending in the Ugandan legislature. Now, joining Warren on the "better-late-than-never" bandwagon is the Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams.
In an interview with the Daily Telegraph over the weekend, Williams spoke against the bill:
"Overall, the proposed legislation is of shocking severity and I can't see how it could be supported by any Anglican who is committed to what the Communion has said in recent decades," says Dr Williams. "Apart from invoking the death penalty, it makes pastoral care impossible – it seeks to turn pastors into informers." He adds that the Anglican Church in Uganda opposes the death penalty but, tellingly, he notes that its archbishop, Henry Orombi, who boycotted the Lambeth Conference last year, "has not taken a position on this bill".
While Williams can be commended for finally speaking out, after his office had said he would make no public comment on the measure, it's interesting to note that, unlike Warren and other Christian leaders, Williams refuses to use the "c" word – to "condemn" the measure. Instead he says the legislation is of "shocking severity" and worries about the fate of pastors who don't report known gays and lesbians. His "apart from the death penalty" preamble to his concern about pastors is a bit like the rhetorical question of, "Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how was the play?"
Williams callously brushes aside the possibility of gays and lesbians being sentenced to death to focus on pastors who may be imprisoned for "harboring" gays and lesbians. Then again, Williams, during his tenure in office, has not been known for his overwhelming concern for the lives of gays and lesbians, preferring to bow to pressure from anti-gay forces in the Anglican church – notably those in Africa like Nigerian Archbishop Peter Akinola – and marginalizing the Episcopal Church in America for their bold moves in accepting gays and lesbians in all levels of church leadership. So, it's not surprising to find Williams making such a tepid statement on matters of such import – it seems to be part and parcel to his overall modus operandi, as evidenced by his comment in the interview, basically throwing up his hands over the whole issue of gays and lesbians in the church:
Can there ever be a consensus in which biblical traditionalists can be in communion with homosexual bishops? The man who has committed his archbishopric to unity pauses: "I'm not holding my breath."
Those who have looked to Williams for bold leadership in the Anglican Communion aren't holding their breath either.
I agree that Rowan Williams has been a disappointment.
The Church of England and the wider Anglican Communion has always indulged in a kind of Alice in Wonderland type of unity.
On remarrying divorced people in church it adopted a dual integrity allowing parish priests a great deal of leeway while refusing to either recognise or condemn divorce as such. The excuse went something along the lines of "the law of the land now allows it so it is up the conscience of each parish priest to decide." The church wasn't quite that open, it has to be said. Divorce was not "God's best". So some churches remarried people while others (wrongly) refused communion to those people who were divorced but not remarried.
On the issue of women priests the dual integrity was institionalised with the advent of the "flying bishops" and all-male ordination services. My friend was actually booed by the male clergy of her home church when she was accepted as a candidate for ordination.
In earlier days Rowan Williams seemed to be beyond that. His opinions were, it seemed, based on thoughtful theological premises and prayer rather than on the need to keep up the appearance of a united church. In his pre-primacy days he was certainly more sympathetic to LGBT Christians than his current pronouncements would lead one to believe.
On the issue of same sex marriage in church, the full inclusion of LGBT people as laity and clergy and now on Uganda he seems to have bought into the whole unity myth.
Instead of leading the church, Rowan Williams has become a follower.
It's sad to see such a wasted opportunity.
"The Bible may - indeed, does - contain a warrant for trafficking in humans, for ethnic cleansing, for slavery, for bride price, and indiscriminate massacre, but we are not bound by any of it because it was put together by crude, uncultured human mammals." Please, stop the madness.
I love the first few paragraphs of your post. It encompasses exactly where we need to go next as we continue to cover this story.
Web Marketing search Engine Optimization * Bollywood
"There is therefore now, no condemnation..." begins the 8th chap. of Paul's epistle to the Romans. Anyone who knows him, and/or reads extensively in Rowan Williams' corpus, will quickly realize that he is a profoundly pastoral person, if not a political one. His nuanced, and not always easily accessible, theological ruminations are among the most reasoned and real - not to mention keenly and spiritually mature - ever written. That he has found so many detractors on both liberal and conservative sides of the gross political divide in the Anglican world, may very well be the key to a better understanding of his genius. I dare say he knows and deeply discerns "that it is not against flesh and blood, but against powers and principalities" that we struggle for the way, truth and life that shall make us free. I cannot imagine a better apostle for these times and continue to hold him very close in prayer every day.
I was doing some research on the network of right-wing political organizations after this story first broke.
The Family and it's Republican friends, Inhofe, Coburn, etc., extends everywhere I researched. To David Barton and the Wallbuilders, the FRC, the IRD and one I hadn't come across yet - a group called We Get It at www.wegetit.org. "We Get It" is an organization that discounts global warming and through a 3+minute video on their website, essentially claims the US's attempt to become more green directly results in the starvation of Africans.
It was amazing to see how a group that has the support of Senators Coburn and Inhofe - The Family members - and all the rest who so clearly have an anti-gay agenda and specifically connections to the Kill the Gays bill in Uganda - so blatantly use Africans in their anti-climate change movement.
Using religion to sell political agendas will always take my breath away...
www.akopsa.wordpress.com
Comments closed
The comments for this story have been closed. Thank you to everyone who participated.