A reader writes:
Archbishop Rowan's small book, "Writing in the Dust: After September 11," is a must-read. Your perception that he is the un-Christianist is underscored by its prayerful anguish over how to respond to the horrific events he witnessed that day in New York. (He was a few blocks away recording a program for Trinity Church, Wall Street.) An example from the opening paragraphs, titled "Last Words":
The religious words are, in the cold light of day, the words that murderers are saying to themselves to make a martyr's drama out of a crime. The nonreligious words are testimony to what religious language is supposed to be about — the triumph of pointless, gratuitous love, the affirming of faithfulness even when there is nothing to be done or salvaged. It should give us pause, especially if we think we are religious. You don't have to be Richard Dawkins to notice that there is a problem.
If you haven't read it, please do. For all his shortcomings, this book is a wonder and shows where his heart lives.
The Dish 