23.05.1996

Weapon of democracy

Church hypocrisy

The hypocrisy of the Church of England has long been a source of wonder - for ‘believers’ and ‘non-believers’ alike. This is hardly surprising in many ways, given the fact that the CoE is the official state religion. Accordingly, its overwhelming first loyalty is to safeguard and protect the interests of the bourgeois state - and its ruling order - rather than uphold the authority of the Good Book. Of course, the words and teachings of the apocalyptic communistic revolutionary, Jesus Christ, can always be ‘interpreted’ in such a manner as to satisfy the rich and powerful.

The recent furore over the remarks made by the former archbishop of Canterbury, Lord Runcie, concerning the ordination of homosexual vicars, has allowed us a little peek into the cesspool of official morality. Runcie confessed that he had “knowingly ordained” homosexuals, in direct opposition to the church’s official line of banning gays from the privilege of wearing a dog-collar. He dropped this bombshell live on Radio Four during an interview, admitting that there “have been occasions when I have acted in a ‘don’t-want-to-know-and-why-should-I-inquire’ way”. It went without saying that he had never ordained gays who were “living in partnership with somebody as if it was a marriage” - that would be going too far.

This dinosaur-like approach to homosexuality is a source of potential instability and future schisms. The decision to ordinate women priests proved divisive, with 400 clerics deciding to leave the church in protest. The issue of gay priests threatens to blow-up in the church’s face even more, as ‘pro’ and ‘anti’ positions start to develop and harden. Richard Kirker, secretary of the Lesbian and Gay Christian Movement, issued a statement saying: “The ‘don’t-ask, don’t-tell’ policy is ripe for exposure and ridicule.”

Communists welcome this long overdue “exposure and ridicule”. Not because we are concerned about the future well-being - spiritual or otherwise - of the church, but because it gives us an opportunity to expose the fundamental inhumanity of the church and its (selective) doctrines. More importantly, the debate and controversy generated by a ‘pro-gay’ movement in the church enables revolutionaries to raise the banner of democratic rights in society as a whole.

Perhaps this fear of openness and democracy is what prompted Ian Aitken of The Guardian to write in obvious exasperation:

“The Church of England is an institution founded upon doctrinal evasion. Couldn’t [Runcie] have ducked and weaved just a little, to the greater good? ... His unnecessary honesty in retirement has now undone much of the good he did in office” (May 18).

Far from ‘ducking and weaving’, communists take an identical position over the issue of gays in the army. We unreservedly support the right of gays to join the army - along with the right to elect officers, to join a trade union, etc. Not, it should be added, due to some liberalistic love of ‘equal opportunities’ for its own sake - like Militant, which sees this only as a “basic issue of equal employment rights” (May 17).

Not entirely, comrades. These demands are raised precisely in order to split the army, not because we think it can be reformed into a nice place for gays, blacks, women, etc to live and work in. This week we have also had a glimpse of what a ‘nice’ place the police force is for women to work in. Any serious revolutionary movement fights tirelessly to extend the sphere of democracy in all capitalist/bourgeois institutions, in order to hasten the day of their destruction.

Paul Greenaway