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Controversial, progressive and
hated by many groups within his own Church; is it any wonder the Archbishop of
Canterbury has had it with his job?
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It can’t
be easy, being the Archbishop of Canterbury. Was it a surprise to anyone that Rowan Williams has announced that he is
standing down as of December?[1]
After
all it can definitely be said that people, whether they are religious or not,
are hard to please; if your attitudes, speeches and policies are too far right
you’re going to anger all the lefties and liberals, and if they are too far
left you will do the same to all the conservatives and fundamentalists. This
means that, as the Archbishop of Canterbury, you can either toe the line and be a dull, irrelevant Church official who
no-one knows the name of, or you can bite the bullet, stand for what you
believe in and take the abuse that will inevitably come from it.
Even if
you despise the man, you cannot deny that Williams has made waves and at least
tried to do something with a position that he never wanted in the first place.
I’ve
found it hard to make my mind up on the man. On a religious level we clearly
have extremely different viewpoints; Williams is clearly a firm believer in god
and the Christian faith[2],
whereas I consider god to be a man-made and at times dangerous concept. There
have been times when I have disapproved of some of the statements the
Archbishop has made; his speeches in 2008 that seemed to advocate a version of Sharia
Law in the UK are an excellent example of this (though Williams has always
claimed this was not what he intended to imply)[3],
and his condemnation of the attacks on Danish embassies over the depiction of
the prophet Muhammad was nothing short of cowardice in the face of religious
aggression.[4] Yet
I cannot ignore the fact that in many ways Williams has been a breath of fresh
air to a previously backward Anglican Church; his weighing on the Creationist/Intelligent
Design debate, in which he made it clear that he believed Creationism had no
place in the classroom[5],
was much welcomed (it’s always good to see religious figures talking sense),
and his attitudes towards homosexuality and the appointing of gay bishops is a
genuinely brave and commendable move on his part.[6]
Williams
is quite clearly a progressive theologist in many regards; throughout his
career as Archbishop of Canterbury he has tried his hardest to drag his Church,
kicking and screaming, into the 21st Century.
Yet this
has arguably earned him more scorn than it has praise. Since the announcement
of his resignation in December my old favourite Peter Mullen has openly
attacked the Archbishop on his blog with The Telegraph, accusing him of
backtracking on issues and referring to him as a “hairy lefty”.[7]
Good to see that Mullen’s staying classy in all this; he can imply that Williams
is a coward all he likes, but I don’t remember ever hearing of Mullen taking a
trip to Zimbabwe in an attempt to sort some of the chaos that’s going on there
like the Archbishop did.[8]
Still, it’s a sentiment shared by many in this country; just take a look at
some of the comments from Mullen’s blog:
“The Archbishop is
a joke. He is a typically liberal, PC churchman who has very little to do with
genuine Christianity. He has nothing to offer the person on the street with his
brand of wishy-washy waffle…”
“There can be no better example
of his moral cowardice than the spineless way in which he is now spouting
opinions in direct contradiction to the I'd-like-teach-the-world-to-sing drivel
he churned out when his orotund evacuations might have made a difference to the
well-being of the nation.
A worthless,
despicable man.”
Yes, I
know; taking the opinions of a few angry internet posters on an issue is like looking to
the BNP for a consensus on British attitudes to foreigners (and yes, I will certainly admit that this extends to this blog as well). But the angry,
disapproving sentiments towards Williams from within his own Church are clearly
there; it’s not just Mullen and his far-right Bible-thumping crowd who dislike
him. His attitudes towards homosexuality in his Church and the ordination of
women has earned him plenty of stick in the past and to this day; former
Conservative MP and all-round crazy person Ann Widdecombe famously left the
Church to become a Catholic over the issue of women being ordained.[9]
Some may
find his ‘lefty’ leanings troubling, but personally I feel this is something Williams
should be commended for; I’ll quite happily admit that overall I like the man. Regardless
of his religious loyalties and his adherence to outdated dogmas I’d say he’s a
genuinely decent guy who’s tried his hardest to modernise the Church he found
himself at the reins of. The religious and the non-religious cannot afford to
make strawmen out of one another; Peter Hitchens is certainly right in saying
that (though I would put out he immediately commits the same crime he’s
denouncing in his description of “the god-hating faction”; I don't hate god, just as I don't hate the Easter Bunny, Santa Claus or other things that I don't believe exist).[10]
Both sides have to acknowledge the other as people with differing opinions to
their own, not as bogeymen to demonise and pour scorn upon. Both sides are
guilty of this.
Dr Rowan
William’s career as Archbishop has been an impossible one of trying to keep the peace with the more extreme, old-fashioned demographics of the Anglican Church whilst simultaneously trying to modernise it. He could have kept
quiet, not made much of the position given to him and been forgotten and
ignored by society and history. Instead, for good or worse, he tried to do something that
he believed to be positive in a truly difficult situation.
That’s
commendable, whether you’re religious or not.
[1] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-17399403
[2] http://www.archbishopofcanterbury.org/pages/christianity.html
[3] http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23083487#.T3suznkoq28
[4] Christopher
Hitchens, ‘God Is Not Great: How Religion Poisons Everything’, p281
[5] http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2006/mar/21/religion.topstories3
[6] http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/religion/8024571/Archbishop-of-Canterbury-Anglican-Church-has-no-problem-with-gay-bishops.html
[7] http://blogs.telegraph.co.uk/news/petermullen/100147490/dr-rowan-williams-a-hairy-lefty-recants/
[8] http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-15228798
[9] http://www.newstatesman.com/religion/2010/07/catholic-church-religious
[10] http://hitchensblog.mailonsunday.co.uk/2012/02/einstein-versus-the-atheists.html
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