Hypocritical Church leaders should stay out of politics and Twitter – GP Taylor

Yet, time and time again we see clergy wading in to political debates and giving us their two-penny-worth of divinely inspired, left-wing views.

What they don’t understand is that the people in the real world aren’t really interested in what they have to say.

Any such comments in the ‘Twitterverse’ are usually met with raised eyebrows and deep sighs of boredom from normal people.

The Church of England once had a place at the high table of established life. It had an influence on the moral and spiritual state of our nation. Due to this, it was granted seats in the House of Lords and was allowed to comment on the law-making process.

That has all changed. Bishops may still be able to sit in the upper house, but they have no constituency or authority from the public to do so.

A YouGov poll found that 62 per cent of people believed that no religious leaders should have an automatic right to sit in the Lords. Only eight per cent believed they should.

The influence of the Church on society is no more. In reality it is moribund and it is the greatest arrogance on the behalf of Church leaders to believe anything other. People don’t want the clergy pointing out the failings of others, especially when the Church itself is in need of serious reform.

As the world warmly welcomes same sex marriage as a way to celebrate people being in love and wanting to form a union together, the Church of England does not.

As a young Christian, I admitted to a senior clergyman that I had a gay relationship when I was in my teens. The man nearly fell off his confessional seat. He coughed with shock and showered me with spit. His advice was to tell no one and find a woman to marry.

Later, as a curate, I went for spiritual counselling and again discussed once being in love with a man. I was subjected to a time of prayer in which the person praying tried to rid me of the demonic spirit of gayness.

I tell you this, because I get deeply frustrated when the clergy start pointing fingers at people for breaking lockdown rules when their own rules are in serious need of an overhaul.

Running down anyone on social media is not Godly, lacks love and compassion, does not gain respect and alienates people from Church. It is not constructive and raises the question with many people about the relevance of Church leaders in a modern society.

Dominic Cummings was wrong to do what he did, but so are the thousands of people who have broken lockdown every day since it started.

I haven’t seen anything from clergy commenting on the matter of life and death caused by people socialising during this critical time. Nor have I seen any compassion from CoE leaders as to the impossible situation Cummings was in when he had to make the decision to take his child to his parents.

If I had been in his position, I would have done exactly the same. The man is under constant press scrutiny and there are thousands of people who would love to stab him in the back for masterminding Brexit and the annihilation of Labour at the last election. Yes, he was wrong, but he did not deserve the politically motivated claptrap that followed.

No one felt sorry for him. The man was ill with C-19 and so was his wife. What else could he have done for his four-year-old child? People die of coronavirus. Where is the compassion and understanding of the Church towards him? Let they who are without sin cast the first stone.

In life, we all mess up. I do most days. I follow Christianity because it teaches me that I can be forgiven for messing up and can learn from it. In fact, it teaches that Jesus died so that we could all be forgiven, even Dominic Cummings.

Church leaders should tread very carefully and consider every jot they write. Every time they intervene in politics, they add fuel to the fire for those who want to see bishops thrown out of the House of Lords. If clergy continue to meddle in politics, perhaps politicians might start to meddle in the charitable and tax status of the Church.

So, what would Jesus do? He’d probably tell the clergy to delete Twitter and pray for people rather than angrily demanding they lose their jobs, livelihoods and income.