Mishape of Banchester

The Bishop of Manchester, David Walker, has appeared on a news channel commenting on the recent scandal surrounding the Health Secretary’s resignation:

“I’m more interested in the fact [Matt Hancock] didn’t observe social distancing than the fact that here was a middle-aged bloke having a bit of a fling”.

A supposed Christian bishop winking at adultery but outraged by a breach of ‘social distancing’. Ah, you say, just another insipid liberal. Walker’s simpering smile belies his illiberalism. He was quoted in the Guardian demanding criminal prosecution for those who pray with people in a ‘coercive’ way. His definition of ‘coercive’ is less than clear; calling on people to ‘take up their cross and deny themselves’ could easily fit his understanding.  

So there we have it. A bishop who doesn’t really mind adultery while concurently wishing to see Christians dragged to court for a sincerely held faithfulness to the Bible. But then the good bishop has always been a bag of contradictions. In 2013, he demanded that David Cameron admit more Syrian refugees, but said it would not to possible house any of them in his six-bedroom Salford mansion. It would, he argued, be inappropriate to “share the breakfast table with a couple whose language they don’t understand and whose culture is alien to them.”

As a protestant dissenter, I am relieved that I do not have to pay towards this shifty man’s generous stipend. As a British citizen, I must unfortunately tolerate him being a legislator in our parliament.

Image by gtgt from Pixabay