Pity the Anglican Church. Not only is it disintegrating from within–what will they do with all those gorgeous churches now that no one uses them?–but it has leaders whose embrace of politically correct pap is as thoroughgoing as it is contemptible. Consider Rowan Williams, since 2002 the Archbishop of Canterbury. The London Times reports today that the Archbishop recently opined in an interview with Emel “The Muslim Lifestyle Magazine” that “the United States wields its power in a way that is worse than Britain during its imperial heyday.” Maybe so, maybe so. But then Imperial Britain is a hard act to follow. Everywhere it went, it brought the rule of law, better education, better physical infrastructure, better health and hygiene, improved literacy, greater freedom, and greater civility.
Somehow, though, I suspect that is not what Archbishop Williams would care to emphasize. According to the Times, American foreign policy–its efforts to intervene overseas by “clearing the decks” with a “quick burst of violent action”–has led to “the worst of all worlds”. Gee. The worst of all worlds? Worse than one in which the United States had not intervened violently? Worse, for example, than a world presided over by Nazis, Japanese militarists, or Communist thugs?
But according to Archbishop Williams, the problem is not just America’s actions but also its attitude, its “misguided sense of its own mission,” the “chosen nation myth of America, meaning that what happens in America is very much at the heart of God’s purpose for humanity”.
Not that the Archbishop confined his criticism to America. In his view, “the West” as a whole was “fundamentally adrift”: “Our modern western definition of humanity is clearly not working very well. There is something about western modernity which really does eat away at the soul.”
Right. I am perfectly willing to concede that there is plenty to criticize about American society and, indeed, about Western society writ large. But that is a trivial observation. Every society in history has been gravely flawed. But compared to all the rest, Western society–and in the last century, pre-eminently American society–has been (as Churchill said of democracy) the least worst of all, by far.
Archbishop Williams occupies a serious office. But he is not a serious man. I think, for example, of the moment back in 2000 when he was Archbishop of Wales and he recommended the TV cartoon characters Homer and Marge Simpson to his flock as admirable exceptions to the entertainment industry’s usual unromantic treatment of the institution of marriage.
Or think of his admonition, shortly after his installation at Canterbury, that America should recognize that terrorists, too, can “have serious moral goals.” Not that he, Dr. Rowan Williams, advocated, condoned, or otherwise gave countenance to the actions of terrorists. Heavens no! Dr. Williams is frank in admitting that he does not like what terrorists do. But even terrorists, Dr. Williams counsels, are people. And although they express themselves in ways we find, er, distasteful–Dr. Williams even allowed himself the daring word wicked–still, it is possible that, in their own way, terrorists are pursuing “an aim that is shared by those who would not dream of acting in the same way, an aim that is intelligible or desirable.” Got that? Terrorists may be misguided, poor chaps, but even terrorists, although they have an unfortunate propensity for incinerating thousands of innocent men, women, and children–despite all that, even terrorists dream of a better world.
The same, of course, could be said of Stalin, Hitler, Pol Pot, and other proponents of unorthodox routes to utopia. Each, in his own way, believed he was working to make the world a better place. If that happened to involve the extermination of the bourgeoisie, the Jews, or anyone who had glasses and could read–well, you cannot make an omelette without etc., etc.
Really, though, Dr. Williams was only incidentally interested in terrorists. The real focus of his censure, then as now, was that ominous bastion of evil, the United States. The problem–one problem–is that America has not been sufficiently sensitive in its response to al Qaeda. Many policy makers in America have failed to appreciate the “serious moral goals” of Mohammed Atta and his pals. (Come to that, many ordinary citizens have also failed on that score.) Not, again, that Dr. Williams approves of young men slitting the throats of airline pilots and steering airliners into densely populated buildings. No, no. Dr. Williams is against violence. (I think of that stirring poem by Hilaire Belloc, “The Pacifist”: “Pale Ebeneezer thought it wrong to fight./ But roaring Bill, who killed him, thought it right.”)
Back before the war with Iraq even began, Dr. Williams warned that the conflict would be “immoral and illegal.” Similarly, he argued that, in its indelicate response to al Qaeda, America “loses the power of self-criticism and becomes trapped in a self-referential morality.”
Eh what? “Self-criticism”? “Trapped in a self-referential morality”? As Dr. Williams might recall, the book of Ecclesiastes reminds us that “to everything there is a season.” A time for hand-wringing self-criticism, and a time for deliberate action: “a time to kill,” as the Good Book says, “and a time to heal.” When a gang of Islamist fanatics commandeer several airliners and proceed to murder 3000 people and destroy a couple billion dollars worth of real-estate, you don’t ring up your local group therapy leader.
And what about all that Ecclesiastical real estate over which Dr. Williams presides? The buildings are empty now, but maybe by giving interviews to magazines like Emel he is just sussing out the future tenants.
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18 Comments
1. Maggie's Farm:Monday Morning Links
Total Control: How Brussels regulates our daily lives. Der SpiegelThe Times of London tentatively outs Hillary ClintonChauncey Bailey and Oakland’s Moslem Bakers. Classical ValuesThompson has a tax plan. Makes sense to me.Immigrants an economic boon…
Nov 26, 2007 - 5:19 am 2. Linda Frank:Someone should send this to that dullard Archbishop.
Nov 27, 2007 - 2:26 pm 3. Anthony (Los Angeles):He wouldn’t understand.
Nov 27, 2007 - 3:07 pm 4. Morton Doodslag:His Grace is a Disgrace.
Nov 27, 2007 - 3:42 pm 5. LSD:His problem is not so much that we wield our power, but that we have our power (and that it used to be their power.)
What would he rather we do with it? Heaven forbid that we yanks take an interest in footy.
Nov 27, 2007 - 5:11 pm 6. Jason:“The buildings are empty now, but maybe by giving interviews to magazines like Emel he is just sussing out the future tenants.”
Oh, quite. Plenty of churches are being converted into mosques and also nightclubs; others are being demolished to make space for blocks of flats.
Nov 27, 2007 - 6:04 pm 7. Webutante:Perhaps Dr. Williams should take a long weekend retreat with Seattle Episcopal priest Ann Holmes Redding who recently converted to Islam while continuing to administer the Sacraments of Holy Communion. Only in the Anglican/Episcopal Church is such an outrageous, anything-goes relativistic religion possible. Like the New York Times, Anglicanism is terminally ill, except for conservative demoninational branches flourishing in equatorial countries.
Williams is a disgrace to his profession and deserves to be relegated to a file entitled “Dan Rathers of the World.”
Nov 27, 2007 - 6:42 pm 8. Fat Man:Will no one rid me of this turbulent priest?
Nov 27, 2007 - 8:00 pm 9. RE:Forgive me Father for I have sinned – I have taken great delight in visualizing myself slapping this moron they call an ‘archbishop’ silly.
Nov 28, 2007 - 4:32 am 10. aloysiusmiller:An episode of the British comedy Yes Prime Minister dealt with the selection of a Bishop. It was hilariously funny. One of its suggestions was that an atheist was preferred over someone –Heaven forbid!– who believed in Christ and the Resurrection.
The comedy was closer to the truth than the archbishop himself.
Nov 28, 2007 - 5:18 am 11. tanstaafl:Similarly, he argued that, in its indelicate response to al Qaeda, America “loses the power of self-criticism and becomes trapped in a self-referential morality.”
I kind of get that particular gobbledlygook.
It sounds like a perfect description of Rowan Williams himself.
Nov 28, 2007 - 6:59 am 12. Banafsheh:Take it from an Iranian whose country has been ravaged by the Brits; nothing Americans can do can beat what the Brits did to us.
Nov 28, 2007 - 9:11 am 13. BMoon:The colonialist Brits may have brought rule of law, better education, etc. to SOME places they went BUT that oughtn’t be the point; the point is the price they exacted from the natives and the rather horrible wounds and scars it left behind. Some say that they’re still paying for it and that that, in fact will be the downfall of Britain. One thing is for sure, Britain IS in a free fall. Iranians on the other hand didn’t need either rule of law, better education or any of the so-called gifts that the Brits brought with them, to Iran. We were doing just fine and I can assure you that where Iranians are concerned those account books/wounds are still very much open. We paid a horribly high price and nothing Mr. Rowan – who just happens to be a very outspoken and ardent supporter of the maniacs ruling in Tehran – has once again dawned his perpetual delusional as nothing more than a self-promoting ideologue and a propagandist. The man is becoming boring and predictable.
This is a man who has spent his entire life equivocating about his very own faith. No wonder mosques are more populated than Anglican churches (except those that still adhere or have returned to conservative views.) I heard that the Saudis are looking to put up the biggest mosque outside of Saudi Arabia in the neighborhood of Westminister Abbey. Since the Rowna Williams really no longer believes in western liberal democracy, nor in the clear, unequivocating Christianity that spawned it, maybe the good Graciousness should just get it over with and sell Westminister Abbey to the Saudis at a cut rate price. The Brits can move Wilberforce and Pitt and the others to another location.
Nov 28, 2007 - 1:36 pm 14. Andrew:Is it just me or does he look like a man getting ready to don mufti, as it were?
Nov 29, 2007 - 11:24 am 15. George Warburton:Following Williams’ remarks, John Bolton was interviewed by the BBC and asked to comment.
He said that Williams was a graphic illustration of why Anglicans did not consider their leaders to be infallible.
George Warburton
Nov 30, 2007 - 1:08 pm 16. iqi:Dear Mr Kimball,
what a faithful bunch of admirers you have gathered here…it makes me wonder what happened to the liberal democracy that you praise… where is the dialogue gone? Where is the richness of opposite perspectives meeting and negotiating a common ground gone? Nothing that I have read on this page is compatible in any way with the democracy that you pretend to defend. All the comments that are displayed are less than intelligent and, in the manner of your article itself, disrespectful (to the opponent, ie Rowan Williams) approvals of what you wrote. I am not saying that approval of your words is wrong, but that no one approves of you in a constructive way, and I suspect that the reason for that is the weakness of your argument and its wrongly conceived polemic dimension.
With a misplaced self-confidence you misinterpret (if not entirely miss) Rowan Williams’s nuanced argument. Your perspective is unilateral and aggressive and what is worse, you mix an intellectual argument with what I would call a personal attack. I can not possibly imagine how someone of your stature and intelligence can make such a grave mistake. I can not understand how someone of your intelligence and critical training can fail to criticize US foreign policy, and to apprehend the hatred that it has engendered world wide. I can not understand how you would fail to understand that at the roots of terrorism lies US failure to understand the potential consequences of its unjust and cruel acts, carried in the name of democracy and human rights. I can not understand how you would fail to criticize this in light of the fact that innocent people (both in America and elsewhere)would be the ones to suffer for the self interested decisions taken by a few so called political leaders. Lastly, i believe that your failure to constructively engage with criticism that has been made to US foreign policy, and your “traditional” by now perceiving of it as an attack against American values, is a disgrace to the intellectual professions.
In truth, if something that I wrote triggered such reactions as the ones i read on your website, I would be ashamed.
yours respectfully,
Dec 1, 2007 - 3:59 pm 17. Headspace and Timing v2.0:iqi
Who will rid us of
Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?
Feb 9, 2008 - 1:21 am 18. Headspace and Timing v2.0:Who will rid us of
Who will rid us of this troublesome priest?
Feb 9, 2008 - 1:25 am