Outrage and Truthtelling

Now that I’ve recovered somewhat from the news of ++Rowan’s planned trip to kiss the Islamic feet that run to persecute Christians -- on 9-11 no less -- it’s time for some truth telling.

First, Franklin Graham was right, if impolitic – Islam is an evil religion. It started as a Satanic counterfeit of Christianity and Judaism, twisting the Bible’s teachings and history into a religion of lies and murder. It spread by military conquest and once threatened to wipe out the Christian West. Persecution of Christians and other non-Muslims is today endemic in Muslim countries and is usually supported by Muslim governments.

And with the support of many millions of Muslims, Islam has produced one of the great evils in the world – Islamic terrorism. Yes, yes, most Muslims don’t support it, blah blah blah. Well the Islamic support of terrorism is much louder and whole-hearted than Islamic condemnation of it. And the evil doctrine of jihad is what gave birth to Islamic terrorism.

So yes, ++Rowan’s planned little trip and speech is an outrage. For me, it’s the last straw. If I were the Dread Sovereign of England, I would dismiss him and tell both him and Tony Blair to bug off from running the church. But that’s not going to happen, alas.

Which begs some more truth telling. The manner in which the Anglican Communion chooses its leader, however symbolic he may be, is no longer acceptable. No church has any business letting the Prime Minister of England or any politician, whoever he or she may be, pick its leader. Having the Sovereign or Prime Minister of England pick the Archbishop of Canterbury may have worked well enough in the past when there was more of an orthodox consensus. But it doesn’t work now.

If the Anglican Communion survives, its leader should be chosen by the Primates, not by a politician.

As it stands, my desire to be in communion with the Archbishop of Canterbury just went down several notches.