ARCHBISHOP WELBY; OUR MONEY PAYS FOR HIS GUILT.

At a time when our nation is under enormous economic pressure, it is to be expected that everyone who knows nothing about the issues will pontificate. 'Pontificate' is exactly the right word to use when such interventions come from an Archbishop.

 

Justin Welby, the new Archbishop of Canterbury, but a man who has only been a bishop for a year or so, has joined in with a left-wing diatribe from an assortment of other bishops, attacking the government's plan to restrict the increase in benefits form April to 1%. That he's done so, shows a shocking lack of understanding of economics as well as of his role as Archbishop.

 

From an economic standpoint, how can anyone justify increasing State payments by anything at all given the dire condition of the nation's economy ? With most people suffering restrictions in their pay, some experiencing reductions, how can it be right that benefits continue to be increased ? We already have a situation in which it is pointless for many people to work at all or certainly to work more than part-time, given the way in which the system of tax credits and housing benefits works; this system, invented by Gordon Brown, is something that will be seen, in the future, as THE major cause of the ultimate decline of the British economy. That state benefits have to be reduced in real terms, and ultimately abolished, is the only realistic option; for the highly privileged Archbishop Welby and his chums to argue with this is anathma. It is not the business of the church.

 

Welby is a man who came late to religious life and, perhaps, feels guilt about his previous life as a highly paid executive from a highly wealthy and privileged family; he did, after all go to Eton and has various knights and peers in his heritage. If he wishes to assuage his feelings of guilt, let him do so from his own purse, not from ours; don't make us share his guilt by forcing us to offer endless support to the indigent.

The church is responsible for the spiritual well-being of its advotees, not for the economic lives of the nation; we should tell Archbishop Welby and his episcopal pals to shut their mouths.