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Resentment at bankers' 'business as usual', claims Archbishop
Ben Bailey16 Sep 2009
Archbishop of Canterbury Rowan Williams said he fears that the City is returning to business as usual with no "repentance" for the excesses which led to the economic collapse.
Dr Williams said the Government should have acted to cap bonuses and warned that the gap between rich and poor would lead to an increasingly "dysfunctional" society.
There was a feeling of "diffused resentment" that bankers had failed to accept their responsibility for the crisis.
Dr Williams told BBC 2's Newsnight: "There hasn't been a feeling of closure about what happened last year.
"There hasn't been what I would, as a Christian, call repentance. We haven't heard people saying 'well actually, no, we got it wrong and the whole fundamental principle on which we worked was unreal, was empty'."
Asked whether he thought the City was returning to "business as usual" Dr Williams said: "I worry. I feel that's precisely what I call the 'lack of closure' coming home to roost.
"It's a failure to name what was wrong. To name that, what I called last year 'idolatry', that projecting (of) reality and substance onto things that don't have them."
The crisis was a lesson that "economics is too important to be left to economists" and there was a role for "awkward amateurs" in examining the way the City works.
Asked whether bonuses should have been capped, the Archbishop said: "I would have said yes.
"I think that's one of those things that feeds the ... diffused resentment; that people are somehow getting away with a culture in which the connection between the worth of what you do and the reward you get becomes more obscure."
There was a sense of "bafflement" and "muted anger" at the bonus culture, Dr Williams said.
He added: "What we are looking at is the possibility of a society getting more and more dysfunctional if the levels of inequality that we have seen in the last couple of decades are not challenged."
Reader views (14)
The archbish is no doubt fuming about how much money the church of england has lost on the stockmarket investing in shares in banks.....
Never mind, at least he will have a very nice pension scheme.
- Joseph Yossarian, London, 16/09/2009 16:47
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Williams lost all credibility when he started to advocate the introduction of Sharia law in Britain.
He is an aloof, politically-correct fool who has presided over the fragmentation of his own church with his left-liberal nonsense.
He has lost his relevance and that of his office.
- Keith Lonsdale, Doncaster, 16/09/2009 15:22
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The bankers own the casino that is the banking system.
The politicians and financial people all scratch each others'backs.And there is nothing anyone can do about it.
Unless the bish knows something we don't.............
- Jimfred, London UK, 16/09/2009 15:19
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I didn't see many people resenting me at 6.00am this morning on the way to work nor I imagine will I at 9pm tonight on the way home. There is a dysfunctional society already. They are usually the "poor" people in this country who don't get off their (usually) fat asses and do something about their own predicament. Find another whipping boy. Maybe the Welsh?
- Jon, london, 16/09/2009 13:18
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Williams your just as bad, and yes I am a athiest
- C Cusano, Bedford, 16/09/2009 12:56
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Let's be honest, the whole creaking structure of this once great country is rotten to the very core. How on earth can anyone expect the financial institutions to genuinely repent when they were bailed out so easily by the oaf who mismanaged the economy for a decade whilst waiting to move next door when his Machiavellian predecessor decided it was time to leave. These people are not returning to their old ways as they never changed in the first place !!!!
As for Dr Williams, stick to giving sermons while you still can before, as you said yourself, Sharia law establishes itself in this country. Mrs Thatcher should never have made the clergy political figures as she did with the more than willing Dr Runcie............
- Andy Woodhead, London, ENGLAND, 16/09/2009 11:10
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Williams as a Christian has a fair point to question the pursuit of wealth and excessive materialism. However I feel he has absoluetly no credibility to single out 'bankers'. I strongly expect that he has idea about the complexity and diversity of the industry and risks actually associated with different parts. He is also wrong to single out this industry, there pursuit of profit may well be un-christian but this applies equally to all sectors of the economy from retailers to footballers...
- Martin_Clerkenwell, london, 16/09/2009 10:01
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As the Church in the UK was founded on the monarchy, the richest of the rich it may appear somewhat hypocritical for the A of C to make a point about the gap between the rich and poor. This point is especially poignant because wealth is used as a means of providing status within the church, just see the fine robes used in the picture shown.
One may make the comments about moneychangers being thrown out of the church, but then ask a few questions, who allowed them in there in the first place, who was charging rent for their pitch and who paid for the church in the first place.
If The Archbishop wishes to make a real contribution to today’s society he should only look within his own domain of religion and start by making perceptive comments about the perceived Islamification of England !
- Jerry, London - The Centre of the Thinking Peoples Universe, 16/09/2009 09:46
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We are lucky in this Kingdom to enjoy free speech. The Church is another voice of opinion and should not be shouted down. He is saying what many of us think, and it is a sorry state of affairs when an Archbishop has to speak out in this way.
- Rod, Epping, UK, 16/09/2009 09:39
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I would urge the archbishop to also address MPs. Their misappropriation of millions of pounds of tax payers' money must also be condemned - and all second homes sold and the proceeds returned to the treasury. Perhaps he would like to voice his opinion on the recent abuses of the expenses system practiced by members in the palace of Westminster. His silence in the wake of exposure of this scandal was deafening.
- R.F., Yorks, UK, 16/09/2009 09:03
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Ironic really that the Archbishop of Canterbury is talking about "idolatry" - he needs to look a little closer to home before critcising others...and what exactly does he do for his salary? I think the church, of all faiths, should come under much closer scrutiny and should be investigated as to whether they are a necessary evil in today's society.
- Carl, London, 16/09/2009 08:54
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Why doesn't the church of england,just sell off all it's lands and give the money to the poor.
It's land and money was torn from the population of this country by force , so rather than whinging on about bankers, embrace the christian ethic and give you goods and chattels to the poor.
Somehow i cant see the church doing what what Jesus Christ exorted chritians to do in the near future , can you.
I wonder how the church has invested it's ill gotten gains.
hypocrites
- Mr Pastry, london, 16/09/2009 08:22
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Usury is a sin and the seventh circle of hell is waiting for anyone who charges more than 1% above base rate, or 1.87% on 25 year bonds. Your soul is at risk if you do not keep up repayments on a mortgage or other loan secured on it.
- Threaded, Roskilde, Denmark, 16/09/2009 08:08
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All the bankers fault, as usual. Agreed they had a large part to play but what about all the millions of people in this country (and globally) who borrowed beyond their means, without a first thought as to how they would pay it all back? Also a good comment coming from someone living free of charge in an enormous palace. Don't do as I do, do as I say...
- Paul, Chatham, UK, 16/09/2009 07:27
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