Britain | Turbulent priests

The Church of England’s views rankle with the laity

The clergy is more left-wing than its flock on politics—but more conservative on social matters

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“THE heart of the wise inclines to the right, but the heart of a fool to the left,” according to the book of Ecclesiastes. Justin Welby, the Archbishop of Canterbury (pictured), might not agree. As the head of the Church of England, the former oilman has championed several causes usually associated with the left. This week the Church held a series of meetings to discuss buying the loan book of Wonga, a lender that recently went into administration, in order to prevent the debts of its borrowers being sold to another high-interest loan firm. The previous week the archbishop had compared socialism to the Christian belief that all men and women are created equally in the image of God.

Archbishop Welby is not unusual among the clergy. If anything, he is seen as a conservative. Rowan Williams, his predecessor, was even more outspoken. Bishop Williams styles himself as a “hairy lefty” and as leader of the Church backed calls for a “Robin Hood tax” on financial transactions. In the 1980s he was marked out as “subversive” for his earlier campus activism as a student at Oxford. Those further down the pecking order also lean leftward. In 2015, 84 bishops signed a letter urging the prime minister to increase the number of refugees admitted to Britain.

The lefty politics of the clergy sometimes rankle with lay Anglicans, who tend to be more right-wing. More than 40% of Anglican Christians believe that immigration has no benefits whatsoever, compared with just 2% of the clergy. Some 52% of the punters in the pews say welfare spending is too high, compared with just 17% of the preachers in the pulpit. Similarly, nearly 70% of lay Anglicans think benefits create dependency; 63% of the ordained take the opposite view. Anglicans disproportionately backed Brexit, despite several bishops coming out for Remain. Nick Spencer of Theos, a think-tank, describes the relationship between vicars and their congregations as resembling “Guardian readers preaching at Daily Mail readers.”

But the picture is more complex. The laity may be right-wing in their politics, but they are more liberal than their vicars when it comes to personal morality, says Linda Woodhead, a sociologist at Lancaster University. For example, 71% of the clergy believe that legislation outlawing euthanasia should remain in place, whereas 77% of the congregation say the law should be relaxed. Lay Anglicans also take a more relaxed stance than their vicars on abortion, and supported the ordination of women long before the Church of England did. In fact, their main criticism of the Church is that it is stuffy and out of touch. This view is most pronounced among those who attend at least once a week.

Why are the clergy and its flock so divided? Some believe it is down to the free housing and juicy tax breaks enjoyed by preachers. In the ivory towers of their rectories, they are insulated from the daily pressures the laity face. Others take the opposite view, arguing that vicars running food banks are well versed in society’s woes. Yet neither argument explains why vicars are more left-wing than their flocks on economic issues, while being more conservative on social ones.

Perhaps it is a matter of theology. Parables about rich fools and brotherly love easily translate into modern warnings about capitalism and empathy for refugees. (One vicar protests that she is not particularly left-wing, just very Christian, for describing the Virgin Mary as a persecuted refugee.) Old Testament teachings about the sanctity of life, meanwhile, are harder to update. Lay views have progressed on such fronts, while those of the lefty church lag behind.

This article appeared in the Britain section of the print edition under the headline "Turbulent priests"

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