Heavy Laden

Among the manifold burdens of saintliness, as both Tumbledown Tessie and the Reverend Blair will testify given half a chance, perhaps the most burdensome of all is a painfully increased sensitivity to the faults of others. It is clearly in this improving spirit that the Archbishop of Canterbury, whom the Independent rather charitably calls a religious leader, has had a bit of a seasonal simper about the state of the nation. Contrary to the teachings of his Saviour, a blood-and-thunder fanatic whose very name is a glorification of ethnic cleansing, the Archbishop expressed concern at the rise of intolerance towards minorities; which no doubt explains why he recently joined the chief rabbi in slandering the only national political leader whose career has been spent opposing racism rather than facilitating it. The Archbishop is also worried about the rising numbers of rough sleepers, who apparently are insufficiently grateful for the mildness of their sufferings as compared with those of the Royal Family. So exercised is the Archbishop on this dereliction of humanity that he took to the pages of the Big Issue in order to shake the homeless out of their self-pity. The Royal Family serve "what is literally, for them, a life sentence" under the crushing burden of their worldly goods; and the weight of their duty is only increased by the fact that members of the Royal Family tend to live considerably longer than rough sleepers. On top of all this, they are denounced and excoriated for consorting with the occasional paedophile: a martyrdom rather similar to that of certain churches one could name. It's hardly surprising that the Archbishop is a tad concerned about our moral direction, even if he admits that we have not yet reached a crisis point: Lambeth Palace is unlikely to be requisitioned for the poor.