The Church of England seems most annoyed by matters temporal and rather less with matters spiritual. Promoting the teachings of their Messiah is a lower priority than kneeling in homage to a flawed concept of social justice that they did not have the intellectual capacity to question during theology class. They confuse the Good Samaritan with the pliant taxpayer.
Bishop Pritchard said he “loved” the fact that Dr Williams was not frightened of debating controversial subjects in public, insisting that the Archbishop was not motivated by party politics.
“He is prepared to put his head on the block, and I back him,” he said. “In our role as critical friends, we can set out principles about the poor and social justice, and that is what a responsible Church will always speak about.”
Bishop Pritchard, you are not a critical friend. Nor has Dr Williams enjoyed either notoriety or criticism for his launch into politics as a friend of Labour. Rather, he has been ignored, his voice preaching to the tiny audience of the New Statesman (not the choice of a bipartisan commentator) Pritchard and Williams could have strenthened their moral coice if they could see beyond their need to pamper the peopke of Islington.
What does Pritchard actually say?
“But the effect is pretty disastrous for many communities, including places like Blackbird Leys in Oxford,” the bishop told his local newspaper, the Oxford Mail.
“There are cuts of all kinds of social provision, including social care and youth work. Social care is being pared back for vulnerable, housebound people and that is something I very much regret.
“And the unemployment level for 18- to 24-year-olds in the country is high and that can be particularly disillusioning.”
What are Pritchard's actions to alleviate the suffering that he is quick to opine about? Will his diocese devote more resources to the poor that he has identified? Will he champion local workfare for disillusioned youth? Let us quote from the hyperbole of the Diocese of Oxford under its Social Justice menu for employment:
For some work is a vocation, for others it is simply a means to an end (making a living), and a drudge. What’s the meaning of work? How are people finding meaning through work? Do we work too hard as a society, and what does this mean for our personal relationships, caring responsibilities and family life? As the originators of the Protestant Work Ethic, what has the church to offer a world where stress and overwork are rife, and where those who work hardest of all seem to earn the least and be accorded the least dignity?
The Church was not the originator of the Protestant work ethic. Nor is there any evidence that those who work hardest are afforded the least dignity. There is plenty of evidence that those who work and are thrifty become penalised if they save through low interest rates and inflation; and by a welfare state that incentivises indolence over effort. But that is a world unrecognised in the ivory towers of the Oxford diocese. There is much evidence of statist rhetoric, little evidence of any justice.
