Tuesday, June 27, 2006

Why am I so disillusioned with our leaders today?

It started with Tony Blair. Less than a year after Labour's election victory in 1997 I started to realise he was not the principled leader I hoped for. He caved in to business pressure over cigarette advertising. I should have listened to the misgiving I felt intuitively when I first met him on his campaign trail in Harlow Essex during the 1992 election. He was strangely quiet whenever anyone in the room sought for his assent to a socialist policy! Now it is the Archbishop of Canterbury. I was a fully paid up admirer. Even the shameful treatment of Jeffrey John did not dent my enthusiasm. But disillusionment with Rowan's approach has set in for me over the sorry story of Anglican Communion arguments about homosexuality. Perhaps it's just me - but where does the future lie for a church which will not listen, but instead excludes, those who disagree with the majority? And doesn't this whole argument hang not on whether all Anglicans should agree to agree but on whether believing that homosexual relationships are acceptable to God or not. Why can't we talk about the issue instead of talking about ways to avoid the issue?

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