19/11/2010

Reasons to vote for/against the Covenant - Friday

Vote for the Covenant - Friday

There is no alternative to the Covenant. Or, the only alternative to the Covenant is further division and decay.
Vote against the Covenant - any day.
Well, No.
  1. There are always alternatives. The Jerusalem Declaration, for example, is making strong claims on conservatives as an alternative Covenant.
  2. Those who assert there is no alternative are, in effect, asking other people not to think any further.  In particular they are asking voters not to judge responsibly but to defer to those who know best.
  3. No evidence is ever offered to say how the present divisions would be worsened if there were no Covenant. Nor is any Province identified which would stay in Communion if there was to be a Covenant but would not stay if there was no Covenant.
The fact is that unity and disunity is a matter of will, not documents or structures.  There is a high probability that some Provinces will not sign the Covenant. Asking them to sign will in fact make explicit that they no longer wish to be full members of the Communion: schism triggered in the name of unity.


Of course, the leaders of the Communion have invested a lot of time and hope and political capital in the Covenant.  But that cannot be enough of a reason to agree to it.  If the deal is wrong, no matter how much it's cost, walk away.  It won't get any better.

Vote against the Covenant.


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