Thinking Anglicans

Tom Wright: the Monday interview

on Monday, 29 December 2003 at 9.28 am by Simon Sarmiento
categorised as Opinion

Paul Vallely, associate editor of the Independent, has a major interview in today’s paper with Tom Wright, Bishop of Durham.
Tom Wright: It’s not a question of left and right, says the combative priest who opposes the war in Iraq and gay bishops is there until it disappears into the paid archive.
There is also a front page (broadsheet edition at least) news story to lead readers to the interview Bishop attacks Blair as ‘white vigilante’ which concentrates on one aspect of the interview only.
There is also an editorial about the bishop and his views, which is unfortunately available only to paid subscribers. This also deals mainly with the UK political aspects, but not entirely. Here are some extracts.

A turbulent but reasoned voice that demands honest answers
29 December 2003

If it is a function of the Church to force people to reconsider their moral bearings, then the new bishop of Durham, Tom Wright, fits the bill admirably. In his interview with The Independent today, not only does he speak the truth to power by criticising George Bush and Tony Blair for the invasion of Iraq, but he confounds the easy assumption that he must also support such liberal causes as the right of homosexuals to become bishops.
…[Dr Wright’s] …analysis of the Iraq war should be taken more seriously than that from the usual left-wing suspects. And he surely cannot be contradicted when he says that, by the political uses of their religion, Mr Bush and Mr Blair have added to the perception of the Iraq war as a war on Islam. Nor can it be disputed that “America’s notorious support for Israel only exacerbates that”. For good measure, he describes the Christianity of Mr Bush’s circle as a “strange distortion”.

…This newspaper does not agree with Dr Wright on gay bishops; we cannot agree that gay and lesbian people should enjoy equal rights in some things but not others. But his thoughtful arguments deserve a considered response and demand some humility from those with whom he disagrees. There is, for example, an element of truth in Dr Wright’s observation that the refusal of the diocese of New Hampshire to compromise with the rest of the Anglican communion reflects a certain American cultural arrogance.
It is an unusual parallel to draw, but there are some echoes in the attitudes of the occupying forces in Iraq. No one will agree with Dr Wright about everything, but Mr Blair, Mr Bush and the rest of us could gain by responding to his arguments with due humility. By that, he has re-asserted the Church’s claim to relevance.