Archbishop should concentrate on moral peril

IN his article (Yorkshire Post, June 9) “Plight of families in poverty is a scandal we can’t ignore”, Dr John Sentamu describes this as “the greatest blight on the face of modern Britain”.

Perhaps it is because the leaders of the established Church concentrate so much of their time and energy on the glaring inequalities of our society that they neglect the greater peril of our descent into a moral and spiritual abyss.

We have a proven democratically-elected government who work in a temporal field. There is a free press. Bill Carmichael wrote an excellent column entitled “The solution to poverty is work” (Yorkshire Post, June 5). And, on the same day, there was an article by Charles Brown about Iain Duncan-Smith, whose valiant attempts to reform the welfare system, impeded at every step, are like a soldier desperately striving to pick his way through a minefield. There are many vitally important issues upon which the church remains silent. One of these is the sexual immorality of teenagers, with subsequent abortions or babies born to mothers who are still children themselves. In 2010, 38,269 teenagers had terminations. Three of them had experienced the procedure seven times previously.

Godfrey Bloom, a UKIP MEP writes in his succinct, prophetic letter (Yorkshire Post, May 24): “The Roman Empire ended in complete moral decay and a new dark age was upon Western Europe. The historical similarities are very stark today.”

We need strong leadership to encourage us to stand up for our faith, to resist marginalisation and to inspire the Christian revival which could bring about a transformation of society.

The Queen, in the wonderful ITV programme, All the Queens’ Horses, declared in South Africa after apartheid “Faith can recreate a nation”.