by Peter Mullen, Right Times
Rowan Williams, Islamic terrorism, and the Church’s long retreat from moral clarity
Coming up to 25 years since 9/11 and Rowan Williams, after Justin Welby the worst Archbishop of Canterbury we’ve ever had, has just accused Nigel Farage of ‘…using Christianity to channel anti-Muslim feelings.’ This is the same Williams who happened to be in New York when the terrorists struck and he swiftly wrote a short book about it, Writing in the Dust. It’s frightening stuff. Dr Williams said the West should not fight back:
‘If I decide to answer in the same terms, that is how the conversation will continue.’
What, Archbishop – the suicide bombing of populous skyscrapers an opening gambit in a conversation! Besides, the Archbishop was confused, for we did not ‘answer in the same terms.’ The response of the West was a disciplined military operation designed to eliminate specific terrorists, while the attack on New York was the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians. There was more confusion in the Archbishop’s mind between revenge and justice. For, while I may seek on my own behalf to follow the teaching of Christ to turn the other cheek, I must not do this on behalf of those of my own people who have suffered innocently. It is my duty to take up the sword on behalf of the fatherless children and the widows. Not to do this is to concede victory to the aggressors, and that would be unjust.
Would Dr Williams argue that the intrepid men who fought back against the terrorists in the fourth plane were wrong to do so? If they had not summoned up oceans of courage – and, by the way, said the Lord’s Prayer first – and attacked the terrorists, then certainly that fourth plane would have been deliberately crashed into another densely populated target and the loss of life would have been catastrophically greater.