MP rebukes Anglicans
A Conservative MP has launched a fierce attack on the Church of England (CofE), saying it lacks leadership and is ‘overcome with political correctness’. In a parliamentary debate on the 300-year-old Act of Settlement, a key piece of legislation for the relationship between church and state, Henry Bellingham MP said too few Anglican bishops were prepared to ‘stand up for basic Christian beliefs’ for fear of causing offence to minority religions.
Mr Bellingham, the shadow justice minister, suggested the CofE was in ‘no fit state’ to engage in such an important debate because of its internal weaknesses. Morale was low, church attendance was declining and many church buildings were falling into disrepair, he claimed.
A member of the CofE, he said that self-confidence among senior church figures was low and thinking in some areas was muddled. ‘One reason why church morale is low is because of the way in which the leadership in my church is, at the moment, distinctly lacking’, he continued.
‘All too often they do take the easy way out. When it comes to standing up for basic Christian beliefs, all we see is a deafening silence. It just seems that too many bishops are overcome with political correctness and they are obsessed with multiculturalism’.
