How odd that the Church has little to say about what has happened in Gaza - Yorkshire Post Letters

From: Dr Les May, Crescent Road, Rochdale.

Another day, another scandal for the Anglican Church, and no doubt we shall soon be hearing the opinions of some of its senior clerics about who should take the rap.

How odd that they have had so little to say over the past 17 months about what has happened to the people who live in Gaza.

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Today Gaza looks like the city of Dresden did after it was bombed by the RAF in February 1945. What we have witnessed over the past 17 months is a descent into the kind of barbarism that prevailed in Europe 80 years ago, paralleled by a decline in the validity of the arguments made by the state of Israel in defence of its actions.

Displaced Palestinians live in a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, west of Gaza City. PIC: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafiplaceholder image
Displaced Palestinians live in a school run by UNRWA, the UN agency helping Palestinian refugees, west of Gaza City. PIC: AP Photo/Jehad Alshrafi

Eighty years ago Bishop Bell for a moment turned the Anglican Church into the conscience of the nation, as did Archbishop Robert Runcie after the Falklands war. They refused to allow the Christian message to be lost out of fear of upsetting their political masters.

Should those who profess to be Christians, and especially those who are in positions of leadership, continue to remain silent in the face of this assault upon every civilised value? To use the words of Bishop Bell, has the Anglican Church now become the State’s ‘spiritual auxiliary’?

Many years ago I saw a poster outside an Anglican church which read, ‘If you were accused of being a Christian, would there be enough evidence to convict?’

Well, would there?

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