ENGLAND: THE MORAL BANKRUPTCY OF THE CHURCH OF ENGLAND - BY MELANIE PHILLIPS

By Melanie Phillips June 30, 2004

The letter to the Prime Minister from the Archbishops of Canterbury and York, backed by every diocesan, suffragan and assistant bishop in the Church of England, demonstrates once again the deep moral confusion and prejudice that has engulfed the church. It is not just that these church leaders are against the Iraq war. It is not just that they talk about the reprehensible abuse of Iraqi prisoners by coalition forces as if this was a policy that expressed the innate values of the west rather than an abuse which has caused widespread shock and disgust and been apologised for and stopped. It is what they say about Israel which is so revealing, so disgusting and so intensely distressing.

For on this issue, they spectacularly depart from the principles of even-handedness which they commend (their suggestion that Britain was ever an 'honest broker' in the Middle East is itself a gross distortion of history, given that it was Britain which betrayed its promises to the Jews under the Palestine Mandate, did its best to thwart the creation of the Jewish national home which it had solemnly undertaken to bring about and then turned a blind eye to mass Arab illegal immigration to Palestine while denying access to Jews fleeing the Holocaust; but let that pass). They expressly come at this solely from the perspective of Arab and Muslim opinion. There is no mention of the rights of Israel or the Jews as the principal victims of annihilatory aggression and prejudice. Instead, there is this:

'Within the wider Christian community we also have theological work to do to counter those interpretations of the Scriptures from outside the mainstream of the tradition which appear to have become increasingly influential in fostering an uncritical and one-sided approach to the future of the Holy Land'.

This is an astonishingly revealing and disturbing paragraph. For in their coded attack on Christian Zionists —the one group which tells the truth about the Middle East and recognises that Israel is the historic and present victim of annihilatory terror, not its perpetrator —these Archbishops have sided with those in the church who promote instead an agenda of malevolent lies towards Israel and the Jews. Anyone who reads the venomously distorted, ahistorical diatribes about the Middle East put out by Christian Aid and other Christian charities or those Palestinian thinkers like Naim Ateek who are so lionised by the church hierarchy, or reads the remarks made about 'Nazi' or 'apartheid' Israel, and the resurgent claim within the church that the Jews are 'excluded' from God's love and therefore their claim to the Promised Land, can see there is indeed an 'uncritical and one-sided approach to the future of the Holy Land' inside the church — but it belongs to the opposite camp, one that the Archbishops have now implicitly endorsed.

So what lies behind this? According to the Times, the Archbishops are worried by anti-Muslim feeling:

'One of their main concerns is the damage caused by the conflict to community relations in Britain between Muslims and non-Muslims. Some of the strongest advocates for the letter were bishops from cities with large Muslim populations, such as Bradford. They are concerned by a rise in Islamophobia and fear that the September 11 attacks have desensitised emotions so that the treatment meted out to detainees no longer causes the moral outrage it should.'

But what about the rampant Judeophobia now on almost daily display in the malevolent and mendacious campaign to delegitimise Israel, and the corresponding resurgence of libels and prejudice against the Jews? On this, the Archbishops are totally silent. The Times also tells us that:

'On Israel, the archbishops were expressing concerns among the bishops that the new steps towards a settlement should not be on Israel's terms only'.

But the only reason a prospective settlement is currently being proposed on terms laid down by Israel is that the Palestinians have not stopped waging genocidal war against it. If they stopped doing so and showed they were really prepared to live in peace with a Jewish state, negotiations would re-open tomorrow. But they refuse to do so. The Archbishops are effectively saying that the perpetrators of this war against Israel should be given an equal right to lay down terms for a settlement. What astonishing moral bankruptcy from religious leaders. The Church of England is now squarely supporting the enemies of the west. It is high time other Christians rose up to denounce it and reclaim their religion for truth and moral decency.

END