More on the archbishops’ letter to Tony Blair:
Church Times report Abuse hurts our integrity, say Primates
Guardian leader last Thursday in support History is on his side
The Times you may recall had a critical leader. Today Tom Wright has a critical letter, see below for text.
And in this connection, see also Bush poll campaign courts religious right in today’s Guardian.
Posted by Simon Sarmiento on Saturday, 3 July 2004 at 11:01 PM GMT | TrackBackFrom the Bishop of Durham
Sir, Though you raise interesting points on the archbishops’ letter to the Prime Minister (leading article, June 30; see also letters, July 1), I dispute your description of the “coded attack” on Christian Zionists as “a cheap shot”.I believe their letter points with deadly accuracy to a phenomenon which few Americans would deny. It isn’t a matter of a few individuals who may or may not be sophisticated. Nor is it a matter of ignoring “the wider context of current US politics”. It is precisely within that context that the point is valid.
There is a close, well-documented alliance between the “dispensationalist” brand of fundamentalism, which sees the modern state of Israel as part of the necessary prelude to the Second Coming, and the present White House and its supporters. I think it unfortunate that these things seem opaque to those politicians (and journalists) in countries like our own who persist in thinking that religion can have nothing to do with politics.
Yours, etc,
TOM DUNELM,
Bishop of Durham,
Auckland Castle,
Co Durham DL14 7NR.
July 1.