Late one night 20 years ago, when I was an oil executive rather than an Anglican bishop, I had run out of steam and patience toward the end of a complex multinational acquisition. We came to yet another bit of box ticking and I suggested we skip it, because we knew the material was accurate.
“Justin,” our wise investment-bank director said quietly, “you know that’s not how we do it.”
Under pressure, everyone is prone to make bad decisions and that story remains in my mind as I sit on the U.K.’s Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards, listening to people talk about banks, bankers and their failures.
“I am deeply suspicious of the intensely complex regulatory structures that are emerging out of the crisis. They are well-intentioned, but impossible to operate.” Well, that is a good sign, at least.
Maybe, but I am hoping the new Archbishop will focus on theology and Christianity, and support the traditional values of each, rather than do the “millennium development goals” religion.
Sophy,
It doesn’t have to be either/or; there’s a perfectly orthodox tradition of social Christianity in Anglicanism and beyond it. The Global South understand that.
Jeremy,
Oh, I agree. I am a firm believer that God instructed us in Genesis to protect the environment, but I am so tired of (arch)bishops who have turned the church solely into a platform for social, political, and environmental causes. Frankly, the latter opens the door for many folks who want to be social, political, or environmental activists to say, “why should I go to church? I can join/be active in the Sierra Club/Kiwanis/etc and sleep late or play golf on Sunday.”