Rowan Williams' Problem with Americans

Our friend Lisa over at My Manner of Life ruminates about Abp Rowan Williams' recent "mumblemumble" as she puts it.

Lisa comments on the willful hypocrisy of the ABC in blaming the Episcopal Church for all the current problems, as though only TEC is liberal on the issue of GLBT inclusion. That is, we know, a flat out lie, and in fact other Anglican churches (such as sensible Canada) have been even further in front. Of course, as Prior Aelred has told us, the problem is not that TEC ordains gay Bishops, it's that TEC does it HONESTLY. (Yes, CofE, we are looking at you and your closeted gay bishops and secret gay eucharists!)

Lisa writes,

I am coming to believe that Archbishop Williams has a particular animus against the U.S., which he extends to The Episcopal Church. Given that so many national churches in the Anglican Communion are moving toward ordination of gay/lesbian people … and accepting gay/lesbian unions …. why does he reserve such particular hatred for those of us in the U.S.? I do not understand.

Lisa's questions got me to thinking. I am an academic who lived happily in the UK for a number of years and one of the things I learned was the British academic liberals are much more liberal and PC than their American counterparts. And one of the MOST PC things a certain type of British academic liberal believes is that Everything is the Fault of the Americans.

I remember around the time of the Gulf War overhearing a rather pompous person sitting at the same refectory table who was absolutely excoriating the US actions. I became annoyed at this because he was deliberately ignoring the fact that the British were willing and active supporters of the US policy, and I dared challenge him on this: Perhaps he should look to his own country's involvement, which he had the potential, as a citizen, to change! He just about blew up, denied that the British carried any independent responsibility for their own actions, and went back to completely bashing everything American.

Of course, he wanted everything that American initiative and ingenuity created--he just didn't want to credit the Yanks for it. I am convinced that if the US, metaphorically speaking, tried to save a starving animal, this type would kick it to the ground simply to oppose what the Americans were doing. Because in their minds, Americans never do anything good.

Now, let me stress that this is a specific type of person, certainly not characteristic of the majority of Brits (who are fine and stalwart friends), but characteristic of a rarified atmosphere found notably in ivory tower academics, where the lack of oxygen can lead to odd behavior. Not all academics, mind you, but a certain slice of them. So I want you to consider from whence comes the ABC.

I suggest that Rowan Williams is acculturated to loathe Americans. He buys into the stereotype that we are rich bullies: crass, stupid, and unsophisticated, with an Oxbridge snobbery about it. That is why, as Lisa notes, he is empowering the hate-propagating schismatics, and ignoring what he knows is right: because if the Americans are doing it, it must be wrong. He ignores the equal role of other groups let alone his own church. He ignores his own complicity. He cannot see the log in his own eye, while he gouges at the speck he perceives in TEC.