From Japan-Believe it or not, I have been writing columns for The Japan Times for more than 30 years. Often I have uttered quite controversial views about the world that a tolerant editor has kindly carried — my hope being to get some reaction from readers and provoke a good debate.
I have to confess almost total failure in this regard. Despite having seen around 500 articles published, the feedback has been minimal — except in one notable case.
This was when I rashly criticized bishops of the Anglican Church for treading too far into politics — I think it was in the early 1990s during a British general election. For some reason this sparked a real furor throughout Japan and a veritable flood of responses. I do not know how many Anglicans there are in Japan, but it seemed a great many, all of them writing to denounce my views and saying that, on the contrary, the views of religious leaders on political issues were most welcome, and a lot more valuable than those of many politicians.
Well, here we go again. The archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, head of the Anglican Church of 100 million souls, has been plunging boldly into political issues recently, but this time I am going to take a different line. In this totally altered world in which we now live, and in times such as these when all the old verities are under attack, moral bearings have been lost, no one knows whether news is true or false, uncertainty prevails and ordered government almost everywhere is under challenge, I welcome the voices of all thoughtful people, whatever their status. And if they can couch those views in ways that get reported and spark intelligent debate, so much the better.
More here-
https://www.japantimes.co.jp/opinion/2018/09/24/commentary/world-commentary/religion-politics-hopes-disappointments/#.W6jH5lJRdE4
No comments:
Post a Comment