The Bishop and the Taliban

What a gift for the Daily Telegraph - a bishop, indeed the Church of England bishop for the Armed Forces - who is caught praising the Taliban for their faith and sense of layalty to each other. In fact the paper made so much of the story on Monday that Bishop Stephen Venner was forced to appear on the BCC apologising, recanting and musing whether his indiscretion might cost him his job. Of course what bishops should say is that Taliban are bad guys and British soldiers are good guys, full stop.

Bishop Stephen's real sin was, of course, to completely underestimate the British press who are convinced that none of its readers have any capacity to deal with shades of grey, subtlety or nuance. For that he is guilty. His sin appears even worse when two days later we read of more bombings in Pakistan and another 22 innocent people dead in Dera Ghazi Khan.

But if the Telegraph will only let the man speak then he might have a point to make which could challenge our simplistic thinking and help us to engage with the real forces behind terrorism. He speaks of course about the power of faith (not just religious faith?) to motivate and empower people as well as the significance of 'community', 'commradeship' or (to use a churchy word) 'fellowship'. Without in any way approving the object of Taliban faith or its outworkings in violent action we can, nevertheless allow our reflection on their faith and brotherhood to challenge the depth of our own faith in God and the community we find (or don't find) within the Christian church.

Now that Bishop Stephen has apologised for his naivity perhaps the Telegraph might like to apologise for its treatment of its readers as simpletons - unable to even begin thinking about this highly complex human conflict of convictions.