In Williams interview, what makes the news?
In the blogosphere's dissection of recent remarks made by Rowan Williams that gay bishops are okay as long as they're celibate, Church Mouse thinks the Archbishop of Canterbury made a classic media-relations gaffe.
Rowan made a school boy interview error, in failing to understand the reason why he was being asked a question and failing to realise what would happen if he answered it.The interview was actually rather long and wide ranging, but Rowan must be aware that if anything passes his lips on the subject of homosexuality, particularly homosexuality amongst clergy, then everything else he says will become irrelevant. It was naive of him to think that the interviewer actually wanted to understand the church's line on gay clergy, as this is widely known and easily accessed. Actually, they just wanted Williams to say something on the topic, anything on the topic, which can then be used to generate a headline.
And so we have "Williams backs gay clergy as long as they're celibate".
We'd take it a bit further than just being about sex, or even clergy, strictly speaking. In terms of meriting copy space, the headlines actually seem to be several. For one thing, he crossed himself - that is, said something apparently at odds with prior behavior, at least as "The Body's Grace" attests.
...anyone who knows the complexities of the true celibate vocation would be the last to have any sympathy with the extraordinary idea that sexual orientation is an automatic pointer to the celibate life...
The other thing was in his saying in the interview that
the issue of homosexuality has become "a wound in the whole ministry" since his appointment as archbishop in 2002.
What and where is WTOP?
(Click on "saying in the interview" in the story above).
It's a site of lousy reporting.
For instance, the WTOP page says that the "U.S. Episcopal Church _ the branch of the Anglican Communion in the United States _ has appointed two gay bishops since 2003."
Dang! Not true! The Episcopal Church does not appoint Bishops. The dioceses of that Church elect Bishops.
Also in the realm of "not true" is the UTOP report about Jeffrey John. His "cause celebre" as putative Bishop of Reading was in 2003 (?) not "this year".
"This year" he was rumoured to be on a short list as a potential Bishop of Southwark.
WTOP's reporting is lazy and inaccurate.
Posted by jmo![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 26, 2010 6:59 PM
JMO,
WTOP is the all-news radio station in metropolitan Washington, DC. "Weather on the 8s" kind of station. I'm not surprised they cut corners here. They're not really known for stellar, in-depth reporting.
Joe Brewer
Posted by joebrewer![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 26, 2010 7:27 PM
Apologies for linking to stories that may appear to be cutting corners, but in this case it's the AP, not a local radio station, that's at fault. My point was to simply get you to the quote about the church being wounded. So, perhaps we'd best stick with our original URL and the BBC story, which also accomplishes just that.
Torey Lightcap
Posted by www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=560747865![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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September 26, 2010 8:44 PM