Horror of horrors and much handwringing at the Daily Telegraph in London.Not only can Britons not answer a simple quiz on Christmas, but now the Archbishop of Canterbury is denying the only ones they get right.Interviewed on BBC Radio 5 by Simon Mayo the result was headlines in the Telegraph, stating that the “Archbishop says nativity is ‘a legend’” and “We three kings of Orient aren’t”.In the interview, an edited version is also published by the Telegraph, the Archbishop is asked a prescient question asking about the validity, “historically and factually” of the current perception of the nativity. The Right Reverend Rowan Williams to his credit, pointed out how much of the nativity story has no basis in the Gospel accounts.The Archbishop’s view of the virgin birth was reported earlier in a Spectator questionnaire, so that should be no surprise to any.But he did make the point that Christmas was not the actual time of Christ’s birth.The reason for Christmas? In the Archbishops own words, “Christmas is the time it is because it fitted very well with the winter festival.”
What the Archbishop was doing was useful in that we have been accustomed to what I believe Mark Goodacre described as the “mashed potato gospel” or nativity, in which both the accounts of Matthew and Luke’sGospels together with the vivid imaginations of persons from subsequent centuries and places are squeezed into one scene.
Not to let the Archbishop off too lightly for upsetting the irreligious British, the Telegraph then included a scathing column from Damian Thompson, editor-in-chief of the Catholic Herald.In his column headlined “Holy Smoke,” Thompson fulminated against Archbishop. Making a puerile comparison of the Archbishop to the Pope, Thompson asked: “Can you imagine Pope Benedict XVI going on Simon Mayo’s show to chip away at the naïve belief of millions of Christians?”Of course the answer is no Damian, because the Pope and the Catholic Church do not use the gospel accounts as the principal authority for church belief.While the Church of England may have problems with the use of Scripture, it has historically tried to use Scripture as an authority in a way the Catholic Church to this day does not.
