Sentamu: the electorate has a privilege and a responsibility
But don't take away our appointed seats in the House of Lords.
In another demonstration that consistency is a hobgoblin of the small-minded and the self aware, the Archbishop of York is urging UK voters to turn out and vote, writing today that,
The role of church and religious leaders is one of warning their congregations not to sleep-walk down the street of despair, but to wake up and take responsibility to choose their political leaders. It is up to people to make up their own minds.As Ekklesia notes, the ABY and other bishops have put themselves in a political pickle:
Bishops have been hoping to maintain 20 of their 26 places in a reformed House of Lords, should it be 80% elected and 20% appointed (ie a much bigger percentage of the appointed places than they currently have)Ekklesia also observes,
Britain is the only Western democracy that has unelected clerics in its parliament. ... The archbishops of Canterbury and York and the bishops of Durham, London and Manchester are, by tradition, always members of the House of Lords. The remaining 21 places on the bishops' bench are not fixed but are occupied by those English diocesan bishops that have served the longest.At least C of E bishops are elected by the laity and clergy. Oh, no, wait. That's another church I'm thinking of.
With no reference, pro or con, to this article, it ought to be noted that "foolish consistency," not all consistency, is the hobgoblin of little minds," according to Ralph Waldo Emerson. To leave out that "foolish" is to misquote him. In some things, consistency is a desirable trait to have and to practice.
Gregory Orloff
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February 24, 2010 10:53 PM
Yes, Gregory. More of the quote may amuse.
http://www.emersoncentral.com/selfreliance.htm
quote/
The other terror that scares us from self-trust is our consistency; a reverence for our past act or word, because the eyes of others have no other data for computing our orbit than our past acts, and we are loath to disappoint them.
But why should you keep your head over your shoulder? Why drag about this corpse of your memory, lest you contradict somewhat you have stated in this or that public place? Suppose you should contradict yourself; what then? It seems to be a rule of wisdom never to rely on your memory alone, scarcely even in acts of pure memory, but to bring the past for judgment into the thousand-eyed present, and live ever in a new day. In your metaphysics you have denied personality to the Deity: yet when the devout motions of the soul come, yield to them heart and life, though they should clothe God with shape and color. Leave your theory, as Joseph his coat in the hand of the harlot, and flee.
A foolish consistency is the hobgoblin of little minds, adored by little statesmen and philosophers and divines. With consistency a great soul has simply nothing to do. He may as well concern himself with his shadow on the wall. Speak what you think now in hard words, and to-morrow speak what to-morrow thinks in hard words again, though it contradict every thing you said to-day. — 'Ah, so you shall be sure to be misunderstood.' — Is it so bad, then, to be misunderstood? Pythagoras was misunderstood, and Socrates, and Jesus, and Luther, and Copernicus, and Galileo, and Newton, and every pure and wise spirit that ever took flesh. To be great is to be misunderstood.
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Emerson's not the only one with the idea: "Consistency is the last refuge of the unimaginative." - Oscar Wilde
Posted by John B. Chilton![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.episcopalcafe.com/lead/nav-commenters.gif)
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February 24, 2010 11:48 PM