Bishop slams “right wing headbangers” for Brexit and election “disasters”

Jun 14, 2017 by

by Archbishop Cranmer:

You cannot know with what life-sapping weariness it must be reported that the Bishop of London (acting), the Rt Rev’d Pete Broadbent, blames “right wing headbangers” for the “disasters” of Brexit and the outcome of the General Election (ie a Conservative government supported by those ultra-ultra-ultra headbangers the DUP). It doesn’t seem to occur to him that these outcomes were a direct result of the democratic process: a majority of the electorate voted to leave the EU in a referendum, and the General Election gave Conservatives the most votes and the most seats in Parliament. Why should these be “disasters”? Perhaps it would be better if the people were never consulted on anything important, and this sort of complicated stuff were just left to those who know what’s best for us bishops, perhaps, or judges. Or maybe both.

Bishop Pete is, of course, well known for tactlessly speaking his mind, but his perpetual conflation of ‘right wing’ with intellectual deficiency, moral illegitimacy, religious hypocrisy and spiritual superficiality is not what one would expect from a Church of England bishop, especially one who happens to be the Bishop of London (acting). Does he not demean his ministry and bring the church into disrepute by caricaturing patriotic Britons as political headbangers and hard-right extremists?

Pete Broadbent’s broad church is bent towards extending a welcome to all-and-sundry without discrimination, but if you happen to be a Brexit-supporting Tory, his church isn’t for you. And if you’re a Kipper, well, it were better you hadn’t been born. The fewer right-wing headbangers there are in the world, the less likelihood there is of disaster. And then good socialists like Bishop Pete can be free to get on with the important stuff of life such as pursuing social justice and the Common Good, to which right-wing headbangers (or, indeed, the right wing generally) have nothing much to contribute at all.

Read here

 

Related Posts

Tags

Share This