Bishop's Move: Rowan Williams's Latest Firestorm

Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the Church of England and leader of the 70 million strong global Anglican Communion, caused a stir last week by taking the unusual move of guest editing a political magazine, the New Statesman. In the June 13 issue of this well-established and widely circulated left-of-center secular magazine, his aim of “sparking a livelier debate” about where the U.K. political scene is headed has ignited a heated political conversation.

In his editorial, the Archbishop criticized both the coalition government and the opposition parties. The Conservative/Liberal Democrat leadership was accused of being stuck in a rut and of borrowing ideas from socialism for purely money saving reasons. He also argued that the Labor opposition has failed to offer a cogent alternative to the coalition’s “Big Society” flagship policy. His most controversial comment raised questions about the democratic integrity of the government: “With remarkable speed, we are being committed to radical, long-term policies for which no one voted.”

The Archbishop’s views have been seen as a challenge to the mandate for the coalition to govern the country and particularly to proceed with the extent of the cuts they are making to public spending. His critique of the democratic legitimacy of the government was not taken well by Prime Minister David Cameron, who gave a robust response: “I think the Archbishop of Canterbury is entirely free to express political views. I have never been one to say that the Church should fight shy of making political interventions. But what I would say is that I profoundly disagree with many of the views that he has expressed, particularly on issues like debt and welfare and education.”

Anyone conversant with the British political scene will know that the Church of England has a unique voice in government as Bishops of the Church of England have a guaranteed place in the House of Lords. In the past, bishops dared to challenge Churchill over the carpet-bombing of Dresden during the Second World War and raised concerns about injustice and poverty in the inner city during the leadership of Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. So the Church of England has a good tradition of political agitation that is not limited to the evangelical hot button issues of abortion, euthanasia, or sexuality.

Dr. Williams is no stranger to political controversy. His lecture for the Temple Foundation at the Royal Courts of Justice in February 2008 resulted in what has been labeled the “Shariagate” scandal, because he was mistakenly thought to be calling for a parallel legal system for Muslims. Although his latest comments in the editorial piece he wrote for the New Statesman are nowhere near as controversial, his outspoken views have generated a lot of ink and pixels. It has inspired legions of journalists and bloggers to wrestle over the role of religion in state politics, the biblical case for “Big Society” thinking and the credibility of a leader of a denomination fraught with its own problems.

I share neither a political loyalty nor a denominational affiliation with the Archbishop of Canterbury, but I admire his willingness to speak courageously and graciously in the name of Christ. He models for the rest of us a willingness to engage in the political discourse, to champion the rights not of Christians but of the needy and marginalized, and to offer sensible, nuanced, firm and gracious counsel to both government and opposition. Whether we agree with his conclusions or not, his move offers a challenge to follow in a noble tradition of church leaders refusing to blindly back a political party or to offer only withering criticism to those whom we oppose, and championing the cause of the widow and the orphan.

Krish Kandiah is Executive Director for Churches in Mission at the Evangelical Alliance. He blogs at KrishK.com.

“Speaking Out” is Christianity Today‘s guest opinion column and (unlike an editorial) does not necessarily represent the opinion of the magazine.