Daily View: Should religious leaders get involved in politics?
Following the Archbishop of Canterbury's criticisms of the coalition government it has sparked debate about whether the head of the church should enter the political arena.
that religious heads are ill informed:
"There have been archbishops who have made an effective contribution to social and political debate, but they have been rare. Archbishops are not politicians, nor are they economists. They are also very busy men, with little free time to spend on the study of different social theories. The business of an archbishop is to lead his Church. Lambeth Palace is not a political think-tank. There is no point in archbishops intervening unless they can bring fresh light or new information to a debate in which the arguments may already be overfamiliar. There must be added value.
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Nevertheless, archbishops are often tempted to intervene in the current debate of the day."
there is a hypocrisy in the assertion that religious people shouldn't get involved in politics:
"Oh no, not this old chestnut again. Should the church get stuck into the mucky world of politics? How ridiculous - of course it should. Dom Helder Camara, former Roman Catholic archbishop in Brazil, put it perfectly: 'When I give to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why they are poor, they call me a communist.'
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"The same sentimental doublethink about the church is equally true of how the Tories have responded to the archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams's suggestion that the coalition government is letting down the most vulnerable in our society. The Tories want religious organisations to play a leading role in the formation of the "big society" (actually, it was our idea in the first place), but then get all uppity when those on the ground start reflecting back to government the effects of their policies - policies that very few of us thought we were voting for."
Rowan Williams speaking about politics, just as long as it relates to Christianity:
"I yearn for a Primate of the Church of England who lifts his gaze above party politics, and proclaims Christian values in a society that no longer cares much about them. I'm afraid I no longer have much confidence that Rowan Williams will ever be that man."
that it isn't actually that unusual for religious heads to get involved in politics:
"Turbulent priests have a long tradition within the Church in England. You don't have to look back as far the original one, Thomas a Becket, murdered at the whim of King Henry II. The history of church and state in far more recent times has been one of horns being locked on a far wider ranger of issues than the ones the Archbishop of Canterbury raised yesterday in the New Statesman.
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"Those who suggested that Rowan Williams has made the most baldly political intervention by a serving Archbishop of Canterbury have short memories. Robert Runcie often pitched himself in opposition to the Thatcher government - on everything from the Falklands War to the Tories' 'lunatic' nuclear arsenal."
Finally, :
"Now he is guest editor of the New Statesman. Please could a journalist become guest Archbishop of Canterbury? I am available."
