Further Episcopal Disagreement

Holy Smoke
by Damian Thompson
Damian Thompson is a leader writer for the Daily Telegraph and editor-in-chief of a major Catholic newspaper. He is the author of Counterknowledge: How we surrendered to conspiracy theories, quack medicine, bogus science and fake history.

Bishops battle it out over Muslims
The row between the Bishop of Rochester (who wants to convert Muslims) and the C of E’s “Bishop of Urban Life and Faith” (who doesn’t) goes to the very heart of Christianity.

The Bishop of Rochester spoke out in a Sunday newspaper.

The Rt Rev Stephen Lowe, who holds the Church’s urban life portfolio – since when was the bench of bishops a shadow cabinet? – says “the demand for the evangelisation of other faiths contributes nothing to our communities”. I’d like to hear him argue that point to St Paul, or to any of the martyrs who were put to death for preaching the Gospel to non-Christians without regard to “community cohesion”.

Bishop Michael Nazir-Ali of Rochester started the row by condemning multi-faith “fudge” in a Sunday newspaper. As an ambitious anti-gay evangelical, he isn’t my idea of a fun person to sit next to at a dinner party – but on this occasion he is right on both theological and practical grounds.

First, Jesus of Nazareth was adamant that mankind must turn urgently towards him, and that the consequences of not doing so were literally hellish. There is not a hint in any of his sayings that his followers must learn to respect the “path to God”, as Lowe puts it, of people he would have regarded as pagans.

Second, the history of religion shows that faiths which lose the impulse to convert members of other religions or traditions, but concentrate instead on trying to re-energise their core constituency, are at enormously higher risk of fading away.

And did you notice the official Church of England response to the controversy? A spokesman said: “We have a mission-focused Christian presence [sic] in every community, including those where there are a large number of Muslims. That engagement is based on the provisions of Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights, which provides for freedom of thought, conscience and religion.”

Ah yes, Article 9. A much more agreeable document on which to base one’s “engagement” than the inconvenient demands of the New Testament.