Michael Nazir-Ali resigns
Posted on March 30, 2009
Filed Under A Progressive Viewpoint | Leave a Comment
I was shocked to learn this morning of the resignation of the Bishop of Rochester, Michael Nazir-Ali. This is a massive blow to the Church of England, which has little enough credibility as it is. There are, effectively, only two Bishops of the established Church who make a regular and positive impact on a broad scale. These are the Archbishop of York John Sentamu, and Michael Nazir-Ali himself. While the Archbishop of Canterbury witters on about Shari’a law and God’s refusal to intervene on the issue of climate change, John Sentamu makes apposite comments about debt, Zimbabwe, civil liberties and social cohesion. Michael Nazir-Ali stands against the sidelining of Christianity in society and even within the Church, warning against no-go areas for Christians, and highlighting the dangers affecting persecuted Christians across the world.
This last field is the key one for the Bishop of Rochester. He has pledged to serve those Christian minorities in the Middle East and elsewhere who find themselves under pressure. Nazir-Ali is well placed to take this role. For one thing it is an issue to which the Church of England itself is largely indifferent. While much energy is expended on the welfare of Muslim minorities in this country, the treatment of Christian minorities in Muslim societies is an embarrassment. As the son of a Muslim convert, Nazir-Ali knows this only too well. The tepid support afforded him by the Church after the death threats he received in response to his comments on “no-go” areas is an indication of how his contributions have been regarded. As indeed are the personal attacks from within the CofE itself – one former aide to the Archbishop of Canterbury called him “an arsehole” – and according to Jonathan Wynne-Jones others have called him a “Paki papist”. Others who have spoken up for Christian minorities in the Muslim world have received similar treatment, notably Patrick Sookhdeo.
So, the loss of Michael Nazir-Ali to the Church is grave indeed. Some years ago I wrote this:
I wonder sometimes why I bother with the Church of England. I love the liturgy, I like my local parish church and the people in it. But the infestation of pseudo-liberal politically correct values, the increasing anti-Semitism and anti-Americanism that is coming more and more to be representative of the Anglican world view, is as depressing as it is disgusting. The bishops are scathing in their report of the influence of the Christian Right in America, and indeed there is much about the Christian Right which is unattractive from the point of view of traditional Anglican Christianity – but American Christianity is thriving because it manages to challenge rather than seek to passively reflect the society in which it finds itself. The Church of England strains every sinew to be “relevant”, but in succumbing to politically correct faux-liberalism it is seeking to impress a section of society that isn’t really interested anyway. The result is a national church which is a slowly rotting corpse.
Nearly four years on nothing has changed for the better. It gives every appearance of being an institution determined to drive out the good so that evil can prosper. Today there is one less reason to give the Church of England the benefit of the doubt.
Comments
Leave a Reply