Not in church?
Sir: Your gibe about "ignorant churchmen" (Leader, December 1) would seem to imply that in matters so obscure as politics and economics only experts have a right to an opinion. You can hardly have failed to notice, however, that experts in economics differ as widely as laymen about the most effective economic policies, and even politicians have been known to disagree. To complain of the exertion of pressure is one thing; to declare that such matters are quite outside the sphere of churchmen on grounds of incompetence is another. And how comes it, sir, that an ignorant journalist like yourself is able to pronounce in such a dogmatic and unseemly manner upon a highly theological issue such as the role of the church in society? Has it not occurred to you that such problems might require no less careful study than those of politics and economics? Yet I should not wish to deny you the right to express an opinion, however crude and uninformed it might be. To leave theology to the experts might be as disastrous as leaving politics and economics to them.
John Prickett Little Brunger,
Tenterden, Kent
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