Fact Check: Archbishop Welby promised a disciplinary process to root out clergy who disagree with LGBTI rights.
This is true and quite frankly the whole story is a woeful witness to Christ, which grieves my spirit, for we see exalted churchmen exhibiting dishonesty and feeding the lust for vengeance of wolves, and supposed Christians spurning Jesus’ commandments to love our brothers and sisters and ignoring the command to bless and pray for our enemies.
Let me say: those who feed the wolves will eventually be eaten by them.
Stephen Tatchell, a gay activist, confronted the head of the Church of England, Archbishop of Canterbury Justin Welby, at an LGBTI rights protest on January 23rd 2023, saying, “Did you hear what the archbishop of Uganda said at Christmas? He said it would be better for parents to drown their children than let them be gay.”
Tatchell’s claim was actually a complete lie; the archbishop of Uganda Stephen Kazimba did not say this at all.
The supposed quote is from his Christmas sermon, in which Archbp Kazimba was actually referring to, “bad people trying to attract children into homosexuality by promising them money and sponsorship.” Kazimba’s warning was not directed towards the children, but towards the adults, and the phrase about drowning was actually a direct quote of Jesus’ words: “To those who are recruiting children into homosexuality, I want to sound a very strong warning to you. These are not my words, but the words of Jesus: ‘If anyone causes one of these little ones…to stumble, it would be better for them to have a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the sea.’” Archbp Kazimba was quoting Matthew 18:6.
The Archbishop of Canterbury – Archbp Justin Welby, that is – responds as if he had heard the quote: Welby’s response to Tatchell is, “Yes, I publicly rebuked him;” which seems incautious of Archbishop Welby in the extreme, if he had heard the quote, for he would then be rebuking Kazimba for quoting Jesus’ own words!
Archbishop Justin Welby then promises to root out offending clergy, saying, “If you send details of a church that is saying something like that… I will ensure there is a disciplinary process against the clergy themselves… I’ll root ‘em out. I’ll root ‘em out! With the evidence.”
A month later Archbishop Welby put this resolution into practice: he sent a letter to Sam Margrave, a Church of England member and a provocative campaigner on Twitter who rails against rainbow flags in churches, transgender ideology, and the sexualisation of children in Queer theory; Welby’s letter threatens to eject Margrave from the General Synod.
Earlier Sam Margrave’s own local bishop, the bishop of Coventry, the Rev. Dr. Christopher Cocksworth, had reported Margrave to the police over his tweets as a hate crime; the police department did a probe then closed their investigation without charging Margrave.
What is particularly lacking in this whole episode, particularly from the church leaders, it seems to me, is Christian charity, prayers, blessing of enemies; the Spirit of Christ, in other words.
What a shame.
I don’t see any evidence that anyone in this group of actors is praying for their enemies, or blessing those who persecute them, neither the Archbishop of Canterbury himself, who ought to be a prime example of Christian charity and servanthood, yet who in the video looks to take quite a delight in indulging the lust for vengeance exhibited by the protesters – nor the bishop of Coventry Dr Cocksworth who accused Margrave unjustly to the police; had it been a just accusation I warrant they would not have closed their investigation - and on the other side I have to say Mr Margrave’s tweets, at least the ones before February this year, do not seem to exhibit much Christian love or compassion towards his enemies either, nor any sense that he might be blessing those who persecute him or praying for those who revile him. Indeed, he tars all LGBTQI people with the same brush, sharing the most extreme examples of bad behaviour and the most odious opinions and statements as though all LGBTQI people shared these views, which is prejudicial and would be just as bad as implying that all evangelicals are just like the Hillsborough baptists, to take a single example. (A note: Mr Margrave’s tweets do improve somewhat in February this year actually; the more recent ones are markedly better and more rational, and are more concentrated on drawing attention to real issues. Perhaps the police talked some sense into him?)
Actually the only wisdom I saw in all of this ugly episode is Archbishop Kazimba who said in his Christmas Sermon, “Too many of us look in the wrong places for answers to our challenges. We look on social media or to our age mates, but I want you to know that most of the so-called answers on social media are not true; people are just forwarding lies. If you want wonderful counsel, look to the Wonderful Counselor, look to Jesus whose birth we celebrate this Christmas.”
So stop looking at the internet and go do something holy!
More documentation and videos available in this article:
Video of Archbishop Kaziimba's Christmas Message
https://twitter.com/ThatSamMargrave
CHANGE LOG
10:40 pm This article was intensely difficult to write, for it was extremely hard to be fair-minded; I probably have still got it wrong. I changed the section about Margrave’s tweets quite a few times, after publishing it. I’m going to bed now.
11:19pm 31 March 2023 added the sentence “Perhaps the police talked some sense into him?”