BETA

I gave up being a Christian (of the Anglican denomination) many years ago. I have stopped believing in religion – any religion. From childhood right up to my 50th year, I had blindly followed the Christian religion, through the Anglican Church. This was because from childhood, I had been trained to believe in Christianity and Jesus Christ. I was still a student, and ‘religiously’ attended Sunday school. I however, had doubts about aspects of Christianity. I raised these doubts at Sunday school hoping to receive some amplification. I was still the amenable schoolboy from a Christian family and studying in a Christian school with its Christian environment, among friends who were mostly Christians. The Sunday school teachers I raised my doubts with were two young priests who were, at various stages, Chaplin of the school. 

Sad to say, I never received a cogent response but was instead given the stock answer that I still remember to this day. One was, ‘accept it on faith’ and the second stock answer to something I found difficult to follow logically or scientifically, was ‘it was a miracle’.

Recently the head of the world Anglican Communion visited Sri Lanka, though why he went there I may not know. Tamil Christians in the war torn Tamil country in the north and east of the island of Sri Lanka had their hopes raised by the visit. Remember, I refer to Tamil Christians, who believed in the Bible and in the teachings of the Christian church. These were the people in a war torn land, who had made it a point to attend church every Sunday and on special days like Christmas or New Year or Easter, often dodging the bombers and fighter planes of the Sri Lankan Air Force. Yes, fighter planes. These were planes of the Sri Lankan Air Force intended, not to shoot down opposing planes from the sky but  to shoot at innocent civilians - and church goers, on land These are people who like me (till I saw the ‘light’) have been virtually brainwashed, though they are still unaware of it. They have been brainwashed in the subtle way in which the Christian church goes about it task.

These people have ‘implicit’ faith in the head of the worldwide Anglican Communion.  After all, was not one of the Christian commandments ‘You shall not kill’ (Exodus 20 v 13.)  The Tamil Christians, in their innocence and deep belief in the Christian faith, hoped that the head of the worldwide Anglican Church would advise the Sinhala Buddhist government or perhaps, give them a short sermon, on one of the ten Christian commandments  ‘you shall not kill’.

Sadly, this was not to be. In a press briefing following his visit the ‘venerable’ Archbishop of Canterbury said, and I quote

‘The military solution to the problems of the country increasingly appears to be no solution. It is undoubtedly inevitable that what you might call surgical military action against terrorism should take place. But we all hope and pray that will lead not to victory for one, defeat for another ,but to an opening of communication , a re establishment of the possibilities for civil society to develop.’

Tamil Christians find it hard to believe these words from the august mouth of an Anglican Archbishop, forcing their way through that mat of hair covering his face. Perhaps, behind that hirsute exterior, he did smile a bit before going on to his temporary residence to sit before his beef supper – done rare and dripping with blood!
I for one was not surprised at this man’s bloodthirsty pronouncement. I do feel sorry for the many Anglicans in the war torn north and east. Do not be surprised Archbishop Williams, if the Anglican Church in the north and east reports a drastic drop in congregation numbers. But then, it really does not seem to bother Williams, does it? Over the years, the Anglican Church has been reporting a steady fall in its membership in Britain while many church buildings are now community centres or Hindu temples.

I should have thought that before Williams left for Sri Lanka, he would at least have read the briefing papers that would have been made available to him by his office in London. It is of course possible that these briefing papers had been made available to his office by the Sri Lankan High Commission in London. We all know that this same High Commission had recently tried to spin a yarn about Credit Card scams at petrol stations in an attempt to blacken the good name of the Tamil freedom fighters.  Williams advocates surgical military action against what he called terrorism. It is sad that Williams has such limited knowledge of the English language or the history of the Tamil nation and the Tamil homeland that western colonialists had conquered. The British, when they departed, handed over the Tamil nation on a plate, to the Sinhala government. But then, Archbishop Williams is clearly not interested in history.

Please Archbishop Williams, do not refer to the Tamil freedom fighters as terrorists. You should look up this word in a dictionary if you are not sure of its meaning. The terrorists, in this instance, are the Sri Lankan government and their army, hired mercenaries and the ruling group’s mafia who travel about in white vans and black motorbikes. These are the people who have been using terror to subdue not only the Tamil nation but also to rule their own people. Please Archbishop Williams, do not talk about the Tamil freedom fighters as terrorists.

It might help if the archbishop were to shave off all that jungle of hair from his face so that we can all see what sort of a human he really is.