Grow up, Bishop Pete
Tuesday 23rd November 2010, 8:39AM GMT.
“BISHOP Broadbent is entitled to his views,” says Lambeth Palace, confronted with the news that Pete Broadbent, Bishop of Willesden, has used his Facebook page to denounce the royal wedding, the happy couple, the monarchy, and the hereditary principle, writes Peter Rhodes.
He refers to the wedding of Charles and Diana as “the last disaster in slow motion between Big Ears and the Porcelain Doll.” He gives the William/Kate marriage seven years.
In, fact Pete (if I may be so familiar) makes the sort of outburst which, 500 years ago, would have earned him a good hanging, drawing and quartering for treason.
But that was in an age when the monarchy could hit back. These days, as this republican and depressingly hip modern bishop knows, the Windsors are sitting ducks.
So he can thunder: “They don’t have a good track record on the permanence of marriage” and get away with it when he would never dream of making the same remark about some dysfunctional underclass family in Willesden.
For one who despises the monarchy, Pete Broadbent, who has since made a rather unconvincing apology, seems happy with a career in the Church of England, a body created by a monarch which is as much part of the royal system as carriages and corgis. A bishop condemning the monarchy is like a skydiver criticising gravity.
Grow up, Pete. You are not a radical outsider. You are a bishop who has sworn loyalty to the Church and its monarch. While you and all the other bishops are entitled to your views, they are very strange views indeed to be held by someone who is totally immersed in the system. Right up to your silly mitre.
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Agreed. In fact, apart from the fact that such crass comments make me question whether he has the appropriate judgment and people skills to be a bishop, as a representative of the Church of England, a body created by the monarchy, his views make his position untenable. If he doesn’t resign, he should be sacked.
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God help the Church of England if they are misguidedly letting people like this become clergy at any level.
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If you think the Church of England was created by a monarch, you need some serious education in the history department. It was founded in 597 AD – a very long time before King Henry was even a twinkle in his mother’s eye. Considering the significance of English Reformation history on our national life and culture, the media really ought to learn more about it.
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The man is entitled to his opinions, and just because he is part of the church that doesn’t mean he has to agree with every part of it.
How many people don’t agree with things that go on in their workplace or related to their workplace?
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too many Christians are like him :- unchristianly & bad witnesses. He puts his class warfare before his charity.
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I have had the privilege of working under the guidance of Bishop Pete Broadbent, and I have to say that he is a man of high integrity and sincere faith.
While his remarks may have been insensitive, it does not follow that he should be removed from his post as Bishop.
Bishops should be allowed to be outspoken, albeit in a manner that is affirming and life-giving.
Bishop Pete has made a mistake and has apologised.
Let’s move on.
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He is only saying what the silent majority are thinking. Why are they silent? Because they don’t care one way or the other.
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Pete Broadbent is normally a breath of fresh air, down to earth and considered. It’s shame that he has written such strong and unwise comments, because the people he serves will be worse off without him in leadership.
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I note that he made no reference to the couple ‘living in sin’ for the last few years, or have they changed the rules on that one as well?
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Living in sin, like marriage is an outdated concept.
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As is living in a structured & civilised way.
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Yes! Let’s all follow all the rules and never dare to think for ourselves. We could all become mindless zombies and…
1. Go to school/University
2. Get a career
3. Get married and have kids
4. Send kids to school etc…
No need for independent thought or art or to be creative in any way.
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I think you’re confusing ‘independent thinking’ with ‘anti-conformity’.
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Not at all. I am simply saying that if we all follow all the rules all the time we are incabable of independent thinking. What would happen if we thought of something that was against the rules? Should we be locked up or shot? You would no doubt favour a “thought police” to control everything. Try reading 1984 with an open mind.
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As far as I’m aware 1984 (from one man’s socialist point of view) describes a system that subsumed all individual liberty to the power of a totalitarian political party whilst satirising totalitarian regimes, nationalism, the class system & bureaucracy.
Welles was of the mind that happiness was not found in self-gratifying mindless pursuits but in connection with family, community and, ultimately, civilisation.
True to his warnings, he would have hated our current ‘liberated’ world created by today’s self-satisfying cultures which fuel our bankrupt notion of happiness.
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The crass, venomous and juvenile remakrs made by this man – in defiance of the oath of allegiance to the Sovereign which, as an ordained minister of the C of E, he has presumably taken – render him utterly unfit to exercise christian ministry, let along hold episcopal office.
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