Beware the zealots
From Mr Sam Talbot Rice Sir: I fully understand Theo Hobson's frustrations with the Church of England ('Losing our religion', 2 February) and the cow ardly way some of its leaders have acted recently. When they are given space in a public forum, some leading churchmen act as if the gospel is an optional extra to their job and not. as St Paul wrote, 'the power of God for the salvation of everyone who believes'. The British have been misled into believing that a comfortable, 'part of the furniture' brand of Christianity is acceptable.
However, many Bible-believing Christians are happy to remain within the Church of England because they are largely left alone to run their own churches; their energies are taken up with evangelism on a local level and not with lobbying for discstablishment. I would support disestablishmein if the overwhelming force behind it were a gospel-based desire to remove the obstacles to effective Christian ministry; but I fear that, in the main, it would be a case of zealous secularists keen to extirpate the Christian framework and heritage of this country.
Sam Talbot Rice
Selwyn College, Cambridge
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