Article (Andrew Brown): Sentamu "breathtakingly dishonest", Williams "has no friends"

[...] Dr Sentamu's performance on the Today show yesterday morning was a breathtaking display of intellectual dishonesty. The most notable lie, I suppose, was his assertion that: "We are not wanting rights to discriminate." This is true only to the extent that the Church of England's own Children's Society does not in fact discriminate on grounds of sexual orientation, and will already now place children for adoption with gay couples. So Dr Sentamu is only struggling for the right of the Roman Catholic church to discriminate on his behalf.

Of course, all churches would want to discriminate, and to define what is or is not in fact discrimination. It is in their nature to regard themselves as higher moral authorities than governments can be. But there's no reason for the rest of us to go along with it. That matter was settled, in England, a long time ago. Parliament, not the Pope decides what is moral in this country; parliament, not the church, appoints the archbishops and decides what freedoms the church has to discriminate within. [...]

But in what sense can Dr Williams succeed? He is a man now for whom his allies despair, and whom his enemies may very well despise. He knows well, and has for years supported a gay couple - one of them a priest - who are raising a very difficult foster child. No one who knows him in person doubts his commitment to the wretched and outcast; no one who knows him through the media would ever suspect it. If you read his letter carefully, it might well be understood as a rebuke to the Roman Catholic church as much as to the government, and as an appeal for calm. But no one will read it like that. It is a piece of political theatre, in which he plays a part written by his enemies. In a fortnight's time, he will travel to Dar es Salaam, for a meeting of the heads of Anglican churches, many of whom would regard his friends as filthy, demonic perverts. Yet he has made it the central principle of his time in office not to upset such men. It is impossible not to pity him but difficult not to be shocked at his cowardice. "He has no friends," a gay friend of his said to me this week, "but we love him." Read more