My Grandfather’s Column (really interesting one, this)

Positive and Negative

Long ago I met for the first time a woman who tried to persuade me to join one of those chain letter scams which promise great wealth to the participants for a very small outlay. For a time I despised her because of this; but she taught me how wrong I was – not that I learned to approve of chain letters, which I still think despicable but because in our discussion of the matter she told me: “You can always learn something from those with whom you disagree.” I believe she was so right about this that I’ve done my best ever since to live up to her teaching on that point.

I am deeply concerned by the fearful disagreements there are among my Christian brothers and sisters, even within our own Church of England. The latest bit of awfulness is the idea of a covenant which would bind all members of the Anglican Communion to go along with some agreed and probably ultra-conservative statement of doctrine based on Holy Scripture, probably as interpreted by conservative fanatics like our Bishop of Carlisle, who appaerntly believes that global warming is due to homosexual practices.

What I have to do in the light of my earlier remarks is to see what positively good things there may be in such ideas. I confess I find this very hard but if I damn my fellow Christians because they seem to me grossly illiberal and stuck in the mud then I am as bigoted as I think they are. The greatest glory of the Church of England has always been that any Christian could belong to it, whatever their attitude to the Bible or tradition might be. Our aim has always been to be inclusive. In some people’s eyes that makes us wishy-washy. The positive thing about this stance is that from it one can easily love and accept those with whom we disagree. There is of course a positive side to bigotry, which is zeal. I need to be zealous in seeking to enlarge liberal opinion and inclusiveness. I may not like what the bigots say but have to admire their courage and zeal in promoting what to me is a counter-christian dogma.

-Peter Graham