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THE TIMES |
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WOE IS ME, for I am a
man of oversized ecological
footprint! Such a lament may
soon be commonplace in our
churches. Tomorrow the General
Synod of the Church of England
is likely to commend a report,
Sharing God’s Planet,
which, among other things,
guides us to websites that
quantify our eco-sinfulness.
I’ve learnt, for example,
that I need to sell the car,
go vegan, dig an allotment and
move my family into a corner
of the church hall. Nowhere in the report
do you find an alternative to
arguments that would have had
a Stone Age man tortured with
guilt over owning a spare fur.
Similarly, while economic
stagnation will be proposed
tomorrow as the solution to
global warming, you must look
elsewhere for the
counter-argument that this
would simply make the
world’s poor yet poorer. Last year, when the
general synod signed up the
Church to the Trade Justice
Movement, it was blithely
asserted that “poverty and
inequality have reached
unprecedented levels” and
“globalisation has yet to
work for the benefit of the
world’s poor”. It was said
that “prominent
economists” are sceptical
about free trade, so
protectionism by developing
countries is to be encouraged.
Nowhere was there a
mention of the many
distinguished economists who
reject all this and argue
persuasively that free trade
is pulling many of the poor
out of misery in countries
that have adopted it. Did I say “free
trade”? Purge my lips with a
live coal! Synod took advice
from Christian Aid, which
recently ran adverts that
equated free trade with Aids,
drought and tsunamis. What
chance constructive debate? To imagine that the
Church has a special
revelation that enables it to
cut through these complex
issues is like expecting the
Met Office to forecast the
date of the Second Coming. The
Church should not so casually
claim Christ’s authority to
adopt a corporate position
which may be proved wrong,
while excluding faithful
dissenters. Archbishop William
Temple might have inclined to
these environmental policies,
but he would have thrown them
out of synod. “The Church is
committed to the everlasting
Gospel . . . it must never
commit itself to an ephemeral
programme of detailed
action,” he wrote. I’ll
stick with St Paul: “Woe is
me if I preach not the
gospel.” Mark Hart
is Rector of Plemstall and
Guilden Sutton, Chester
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