Who Leads Whom?

Britain’s archbishop of York recently gave a speech in the House of Lords in which he backed Britain’s decision to make hydrogen bombs. Several shocked churchgoers sent letters to the Manchester Guardian Weekly on the matter. One of these letters to the editor, in the issue of March 24, 1955, said: “Sir,—The Archbishop of York’s speech in the Lords justifying the making of the hydrogen bomb was a very powerful utterance, more convincing than anything our political leaders have said on the subject. Yet in one passage he undermined his position as a Christian leader and his right to speak as such. He conceded virtually that the true Christian position is to be prepared to suffer wrong rather than inflict it. ‘It is an argument that must appeal to every Christian.’ Yet amazingly he proceeded to dissociate himself from that position because it did not express ‘the deliberate convictions of the great majority.’ That means that almost the highest churchman in the land cannot take the full Christian position until he has the consent of the untutored and largely pagan masses.”