The Editor of the Telegraph Blog, Damian Thompson, has asked why the Archbishop of Canterbury has not spoken out about the riots. Mr Thompson does also pose the same question to the Archbishop of Westminster but a statement has since been released by Archbishop Vincent Nichol.
The church cannot win. When the Archbishop does speak out, as he did in the New Statesman, about the state of the economy he was told that the church had no right to intervene. The press created a division between political thought and religious belief and accused the Archbishop of having crossed a line.
I have no doubt that the Archbishop is concerned about the riots and his silence does not mean otherwise. However, to be fair to him, I don't think the rioters are looking for moral leadership. The rioters are too busy claiming feral leadership to worry about whether the church is speaking out or not.
They may not know what to say. The response after the riots in the 1980's was pretty weak, and did nothing to change anything. Lots of pious words, projects which closed when the funding ran out or the minister involved moved on, some feeble attempts at theology, and nothing which lasted. Let's hope we can do better this time!
ReplyDeleteSometimes it's better to say nothing rather than give a knee-jerk reaction to events that shock everybody.
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