DADDY, WHAT WAS ENGLAND? :

Britain Appoints Canterbury Archbishop (ROBERT BARR, July 23, 2002, Associated Press)

Welsh archbishop Rowan Williams, a renowned theologian and outspoken opponent of U.S. policies in Afghanistan and Iraq, was chosen Tuesday to be the 104th archbishop of Canterbury, spiritual leader of the world's 70 million Anglicans. [...]

Williams, 52, has been praised in some church quarters as an orthodox Christian and a deep thinker. Desmond Tutu, the former archbishop of Cape Town, describes Williams as "the leading theologian in our communion." But some conservatives have been alarmed that he admitted ordaining a priest whom he suspected of living in a homosexual relationship.

Williams, who was in lower Manhattan on Sept. 11 as terrorist strikes brought down the World Trade Center, has criticized the U.S.-led war on terrorism, and has condemned sanctions against Iraq and the American threats of military action against Saddam Hussein.

Writing recently about the war on terrorism, Williams said, "It is just possible to deplore civilian casualties and retain moral credibility when an action is clearly focused and its goals are on the way to evident achievement.

"It is not possible when the strategy appears confused and political leaders talk about a war that may last for years."

He sounds like the perfect leader for a church in post-Christian Britain. Is it possible to be less morally serious than to suggest that a cleric's sexual behavior is immaterial and that a war on evil can only be justified if it's short? This is the cheap faith of those who believe in nothing more than immediate personal gratification and the path of least resistance, rather than the via dolorosa.
Posted by Orrin Judd at July 23, 2002 2:58 PM