Rowan on the riots

Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams has weighed in this week on the causes to, and solutions for, this summer’s riots.

It’s fashionable to criticize him every time he pops his head over the parapet, and the Daily Telegraph and other media to the right-of-centre have enjoyed doing so.

There is actually a lot of thought, and a fair amount of wisdom, in what he said. If he were a politician, head of a think tank, a local councillor, or a youth worker, his article in the Guardian would be a thought-provoking, useful contribution.

But he isn’t any of those people. He’s the day-to-day head of the Church of England. And so it matters that in his article, he did not mention God the Father, God the Son, or God the Spirit, or even the Bible or the church.

It matters that one of the comments beneath his article online says this: “Once again Dr Williams has been very brave, considering his position, and he has also not offered faith or religion as a solution to the problem. Top marks!”

It matters that when he could have said that…

• the root cause of the theft and arson and mugging was sin, a rejection of loving God and neighbour;
• that what matters more than facing a custodial sentence now is facing the God of justice in the future;
• that none of us can feel smug or better than the rioters, since we are all, often in more mannered ways, guilty of deciding we know better than God, and guilty of seeking to put ourselves at the centre of the universe;
• that the Lord Jesus subjected Himself to a hate mob and had His dignity and clothes stolen from Him so that He could die in our place and bear the punishment we all deserve;
• that until His love melts our hearts and His word reigns in our lives, we won’t be able to live in a way that brings peace to us and to those around us

…he didn’t.

Interestingly, even some secular writers seem to pine for the “good old days”, when churchmen believed in and talked about the God of the Bible. Here’s a revealing thought, from someone who appears to be an atheist, that “the fear of God was a very useful thing … the idea that, one day, you would pay”.

That idea is a very real thing, too. Which is what Rowan might have mentioned.