The Episcopalian superiority complex

From The Guardian (UK):

There is a nasty whiff of colonial attitudes when Anglican liberals cast African Evangelicals as backward and uncivilised
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by Riazat Butt


The US Episcopal church is hailed among liberals for its inclusiveness towards women and homosexuals – and it has angered conservative evangelicals in the Anglican communion for the same reason. Yesterday, however, one of the US church's shining lights succeeded where the archbishop of Canterbury has so far failed – in uniting people, even if it was in outrage, following her claim that people from ethnic minorities beat their wives.

The Right Rev Catherine Roskam, suffragan bishop of New York, with a responsibility for 66 congregations, said domestic violence was culturally acceptable in some parts of the world and that "even the most devout Christians" were guilty of it. In an article in the Lambeth Witness, a daily newsletter produced during the conference by a campaign group Inclusive Church Network, she wrote:

"We have 700 men here.

"Do you think any of them beat their wives? Chances are they do. The most devout Christians beat their wives.

"Culturally, many of our bishops come from places where it is culturally accepted to beat your wife. In that regard, it makes the conversation quite difficult."

Delegates at Canterbury have been upset at her suggestion that bishops beat their wives, with some saying it is impossible for a man of the cloth even to consider such a thing. But this counterclaim is equally ridiculous: holy orders are no bar to perpetrating violence against others.

What bishops should be more concerned about is her insinuation that a non-white culture leads to domestic violence and that white, western culture is too civilised and too advanced to allow such atrocities to occur. Roskam fails to recognise that domestic violence affects people regardless of their class, ethnicity, religion, gender or geography.

But perhaps bishops should not be surprised by her attitude, which has echoes in an incident from the previous Lambeth conference in 1998, when another American bishop claimed African Christians had only just developed from believing that rocks and trees have spirits and did not understand modern science. This rhetoric, and the underlying assertion of superiority, plays into the hands of conservative evangelicals who are fed up with colonialist attitudes, but also of people who argue that religion, its followers and leaders are backwards and irrelevant.