Churches still fighting

Dec 28 2008 by Ken Oxley, Sunday Sun

MY favourite episode of Father Ted is the one where Ted loses a bet with arch rival Dick Byrne and must carry out a forfeit . . . kicking Bishop Brennan up the a*se.

Like all episodes of this inspired sitcom, it was sharply-written, brilliantly performed and slightly surreal.

But believable? Surely not.

However, life does have a strange way of imitating art, as the latest spat between the Archbishop of Canterbury, Dr Rowan Williams, and Bishop of Rochester, Dr Michael Nazir-Ali, demonstrates.

This week, one of Dr Williams’ aides was sacked after referring to Dr Nazir-Ali as an “a*sehole” in a document sent to church officials and Downing Street.

Not exactly a kick up the ar*e . . . but not a kick in the ar*e off, either!

A swift apology was issued but, even so, it’s clear there’s no love lost between the two Anglican heavyweights. Father Ted was no ordinary sitcom. It used humour to hold a mirror up to the Church, revealing prejudice, intolerance and petty rivalries.

Ten years after the final series was made, those problems are still very much in evidence.

Dr Williams and Dr Nazir-Ali are at loggerheads over gay clergy, something I suspect religious leaders will still be arguing about in the next millennium, such is the progressive nature of the church.

They also disagree strongly on what approach to adopt towards Britain’s Muslim population.

While Dr Williams voiced somewhat muddled support for a version of Sharia Law in the UK, Dr Nazir-Ali would make no such concessions and remains deeply concerned about extremism.

He has shown little tolerance towards Islam, which some might consider odd as he knows only too well what it is like to belong to a minority group.

As a young Christian living in Pakistan, he suffered from both abuse and persecution.

It continually amazes me that — when you scratch below the surface — those most likely to preach about forgiveness appear to be fundamentally intolerant and narrow-minded.