Proving the Rule

One of the internet’s most endearing quirks is the abundance of inspirational quotes poised to illuminate our day via a simple click. I particularly enjoy those which are wrongly attributed. You know the kind of thing: “Don’t hang with losers coz they be, like, so gross?” (Charles Dickens). For this reason I’m always careful before passing on the observations of others without first doing a spot of corroborative research. A case in point is this: “Everyone you meet is fighting a battle you know nothing about. Be kind. Always.” Now, I have long admired this sentiment as nothing less than a blueprint for civilised living. Online, the quotation is widely credited to the late comedian Robin Williams and, given the contours of his life with which he struggled, I’m certain he would have endorsed it with all his heart. Nonetheless, my digging around in the bottom left-hand corner of the internet revealed the advice actually originated with Scottish author Ian Maclaren, who died in 1907 and who in any case was actually John Watson, a minister in the Free Church of Scotland. I’ll have a crack at that Dickens one next.

I reached for the quotation with the intention of using it here to contrast with the views of a different church, having been recently perplexed by the Church of England. In an open letter, the leadership apologised for the church’s past treatment of LGBTQ+ people, writing, “For the times we have rejected or excluded you, and those you love, we are deeply sorry”. So far, so admirable. I don’t normally follow matters theological but this caught my interest because of what came next.

For in the same letter, the bishops reaffirmed their refusal to marry same-sex couples on their premises. Since the Church of England was granted an exemption from some British laws on matters of equality (I know!) it is quite entitled to do so. But it still appeared to me to endorse discrimination, a sort of emotional apartheid.

The Vatican also commented on this topic with Pope Francis appealing for greater tolerance towards the LGBTQ+ community, asserting that God loves all his children as they are. But again, this was immediately qualified as he declared gay people to be merely sinners and not actual criminals (I can only imagine their relief). Religious faith is surely not the issue here so much as the question of

White lives in south Indre with his wife, too many moles and not enough guitars officially exempting certain people from rights enjoyed by everybody else. History screams at us where such mandates can lead. It ain’t pretty.

To be clear, being neither religious nor gay, I have no personal stake in this. In fact, I am spectacularly unqualified to debate the theology or church politics involved. I’m sure there is some kind of liturgical framework in which these decisions are made and/or texts which can be employed to justify them. It just seems sadly out of step with those who aspire to a fairer society. Also, given the immense importance of religious faith to so many, I wondered how this plays out within the church itself, the internal dynamics of such inequality.

But exceptions are now very much the rule and the ecclesiastical world is not alone in hosting dual standards. Public life elsewhere is a riot of convenient exemptions: the zillionaires who own UK newspapers criticising the government’s spending priorities but who themselves live abroad and pay no British tax; Police officers, sworn to protecting the public but caught making lethal exceptions based on gender or race; “There’s no magic money tree to alleviate poverty”, repeats the UK government while approving a £7 million front door for the House of Lords, (and don’t get me started on the coronation). Exceptions, everywhere we look.

Never forgetting, of course, those who ordered a frightened population into Covid lockdowns while exempting themselves in their Downing Street offices with ‘wine time Fridays’. The template for this mindset was laid down long ago. The imperial histories of both Great Britain and France, for example, are founded upon the unyielding belief in their own nation’s exceptionalism. Brexit was surely this conviction writ large.

Don’t try to make sense of it all, for down that wretched road only madness lies. Human history reveals a deathly cycle of one group determined to make an exception of another, a darkness made visible. Only the best of us possessed the strength of character to admit errors of judgement and acknowledge their mistakes. I had a quick look online for who best expressed this human frailty. Naturally, the web didn’t disappoint:

“I'm playing all the right notes, but not necessarily in the right order.”

(Nelson Mandela)