Rowan Williams to Seek Meeting with Mugabe

This should create not a little controversy. George Conger reports that the Archbishop of Canterbury intends to seek a meeting with Robert Mugabe to discuss Zimbabwe’s persecuted Anglicans – persecuted by Mugabe to be exact.


I do not know what to think about this. Certainly, Dr. Williams has a pastoral duty to do his best on behalf of persecuted Anglicans. And, like it or not, Mugabe is in charge in Zimbabwe.


But how evil does a leader have to be before one determines that meeting with him would be pointless? If Mugabe made some sort of agreement with Rowan, would he keep it? And certainly ++Canterbury seeking a meeting with Mugabe (whether Mugabe agrees to a meeting or not) would buttress the stature of that thug.


I’ve been highly critical of Dr. Williams. But on this, he has not my criticism, but my sympathy. This is a difficult and ethically problematic decision indeed.