Steve’s Blog: Politicians, saints, Rwanda & Wonga

Politicians have long claimed to be saints, it wins them trust and trust means votes. Of course, it also makes it all the more amusing when they are revealed as the lying toerags they usually are. Now it seems the lines are blurring, and our archbishops are now politicians.

Welby and Cottrell could of course concentrate on spreading the gospel and rejuvenating their dwindling congregations. They could fix the literally desperate shortage of new vicars. They could duel with Dawkins and show the real truth that atheism is not science and is as much a matter of faith as any other religion (and win), like Runcy. No, these archbishops are intent on political crusades.

First there was the Welby Wonga war. Convinced that payday lenders were not just providing a money lending service but were taking advantage of people who needed to loan money, the bishop successfully campaigned to cap their interest levels and bankrupt the business model (probably a good thing).  Sometime later when Wonga and the like naturally, all went bust, Welby wanted to purchase the loan book into the church to help some of the debtors.

Next there was the storming attack on government welfare reforms and demands that £24,679 at the time was not enough (in 2018) to feed a 2 child family. Finally, we now have the gospel of immigration.

Welby & Cottrell will presume they are the good Samaritans, the moral compass of North and South by holding politicians to account. Yet they perhaps do not grasp that only some, and not all of those in need of money, actually need money. 

Both wealth and poverty are a result; they are a by-product of an individual’s skills, work efforts, habits and decisions.

When I was 20 years old with a wife, a young family, a council house, no job, no money I would have loved Welby to come and hand me more money, but it would have been the worst thing he could have done to me.

I would have taken his money instead of learning, growing and straightening myself out so that my life turned around. The money would have ingrained my bad habits, it would have made my problems worse. One time I wasted my weeks wages on an arm tattoo to look cool. Another time I lost the whole weeks wages in a gambling machine, which I had greedily thought would pay me out because lots of others had put so much in. I was the problem, not the money, me.

To treat others as they want to be treated is not to give them all they want but, what is actually needed.

Both archbishops will know the bible much better than me but I believe there were only 2 points in the gospels where the Lord got angry…. One was when money lenders had taken over the church and one was when a servant hid his talents in the ground instead of using what was given to him.

Perhaps our archbishops should be particularly cautious when it seems a good idea to turn the church into a money lender or when giving to a charity which only helps people to hide their talents then?

A man can be given fish, or he can be taught to fish. If you give him fish you make him dependant, you take away his self-esteem, you stunt his development and you encourage him to hide his talents and not become all that he was designed to be.

The British public still seems able to make the distinction between those in need and those trying it on, look at the help for displaced families of the war in Ukraine.